


Mother

by FeatherQuilt88



Series: The Amber Dragon Anthology [12]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Angst, Canon-Divergent from Everything Else, Character Analysis, Coma, Cuddling & Snuggling, Cute Kids, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fire Lord Zuko, Flashbacks, Forgiveness and Reconciliation are Related but Not the Same, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Happy, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Joyful, Letters, Love, Multi, Nuns, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Love, Post-Canon for the Original Series, Prison, Second Chances, Soft Zuko (Avatar), Songs, Tea, Trigger Warning: Brief Child Endangerment, Trigger Warning: Verbal/Psychological Abuse, Worldbuilding, headcanons ahoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 33,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeatherQuilt88/pseuds/FeatherQuilt88
Summary: Fire Lord Zuko recieves word that his mother, Ursa, has been found in an Earth Kingdom abbey. Only problem--she's in a coma, and Zuko and his friends will have to go on a trek for the cure. (Obviously canon-divergent from the comics, as is all of my "Amber Dragon" series.)
Relationships: Aang & Zuko (Avatar), Azula & Iroh (Avatar), Azula & Ursa (Avatar), Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Iroh & Original Child Character(s), Iroh & Ozai (Avatar), Iroh & Ursa (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Jin/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Original Child Character(s), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Suki & Zuko (Avatar), Ursa & Zuko (Avatar), Ursa (Avatar) & Original Character(s), Ursa (Avatar) & Original Child Character(s), Zuko & Original Child Character(s)
Series: The Amber Dragon Anthology [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988473
Comments: 14
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is going to be more involved than my normal "Amber Dragon" ficlets (more like the first seven, "To Everything a Season" thru "Home at Last"--which I probably should have formatted all as one fic with chapters but didn't ^^;), so it will be the first one to officially have chapters. (Also, I'm reverting to using past-tense for this one, since somehow I find present-tense more difficult to write in longer tales.)
> 
> As always, for readers new to my "Amber Dragon" fanfic series (which is post-canon for the original series and canon-divergent from everything else) as a whole--in it, Iroh lives in Caldera City with Zuko, and the two have started calling each other "Dad" and "Son" now. Iroh has also adopted my fancharacter, Chiko. Jin and her family have also moved to the new "Earthtown" segment of the Fire Nation Capital, and she and Zuko are dating at this point.
> 
> A new fancharacter in this tale is Cuifen, an Earth nun. Other, more minor fancharacters include Karou and Yumi (royal guards), Den-Cho (advisor), and Nianzu and Zhong (random Earth underkings who basically just exist to be mentioned in a few paragraphs). "Meirong" is the name I made up for the canon abbess shown in "Bato of the Water Tribe," and "Winterjade" is the name I made up for the unnamed canon abbey itself. "Bingwen" is the name I've given to the sword-wielding bully from "The Swamp."
> 
> PS: Shout-out to Highly_Illogical for helping me brainstorm with this one! I always love our "story-building" conversations, and I hope she recognizes a few scenes here.... ;) And, shout-out to mintdr (a friend from DeviantArt), for inspiring the little "teapot from under the seat" scene in Chapter 2!

_Down one of Caldera City's many streets, Fire Lord Zuko came bearing gifts._

The young monarch walked with a spring in his step, his smile as bright as the sun on his golden crown. Two of his guards watched from a distance. They were trained to give him and his family a measure of privacy, but to still keep him somewhere within their sight, when outside the safer confines of the palace.

One of these guards was Lt. Jee. Two years ago, he would scarcely have believed that the former prince could be so ebullient. Or carry a vase of flowers so proudly on his shoulder. (Of course, two years ago, he also would scarcely have believed he would have signed up for palace guard duty, to continue serving the once-sullen young man he had butted heads with so badly.)

Jee watched as Zuko darted into one of the apartments, here in the Earthtown's servant neighborhood. _No need to fear--this was the abode of that Earth girl his Majesty was dating now, and her parents. "Jin," wasn't that her name? Or was it "Gin?" "Jing?"_

Apparently the girl was out at the moment, because Zuko had only stayed long enough to leave the flowers (they were quite a pretty little spray, of orange and purple) on a table. Along with a gushing, handwritten note, judging by his self-congratulatory (but sweet) look as he exited.

 _If he had ever acted that cheerful back on their ship, during those three years at sea, they all would have thought he was drugged. Or enchanted by some mischievous Spirit World creature._ Jee snorted between his sideburns.

But it was a happy sort of snort.

***

_Through the dank corridors of Capital City Prison, Prince Iroh came bearing gifts._

His was not nearly as happy an errand. For one thing, he hated being reminded of this place. For another, he could never quite get his feelings to settle on the subject in question--the person in question.

Half of him saw his baby brother, dandled on his mother's knee, a few short months before she died.

The other half of him saw the man who had burned--had tried to _kill!_ \--his nephew-turned-adoptive-son. (Not to mention, had tried to destroy half the world.)

Regret and compassion danced arm-in-arm with white-hot bile and righteous wrath, whenever Iroh got within ten feet of Ozai. Together, these emotions created a very solemn--and very, very fragile--sort of calm.

Admitting their own sins--and how they had been forgiven--had given Iroh and Zuko both the compassion to pray for Ozai's soul. And to insist on Ozai having an upgraded cell--a fairly large and comfortable place, with books and cushions, and mirrors to catch the distant light.

Common sense--and remembering Ozai's abuse and venom, even to his own family--had given Iroh and Zuko both the foresight to insist he stay there. Very well-guarded.

Just as Zuko's own guards kept their distance (but not _too_ far), so now did the prison guards bow solemnly and file away, just a bit down the hall. Giving Prince Iroh some time alone with the prisoner, but still covering every possible escape route, in each direction. Ozai was housed in the very heart of the tower.

Right now, the younger son of Azulon sat with his back to the bars. Only the slight movement of his head betrayed the fact that he had heard the elder come in. (Ozai readjusted it swiftly, to stare aggressively at the wall again--refusing to acknowledge his visitor.)

"Eight-treasure tea, little brother," Iroh began, gently and rather chipperly, holding the tea-tray over his rotund belly. _It was always slightly easier this way--when he imagined Ozai as a child again, he could keep his anger more at bay._ He knelt just outside the iron cage-wall, and started to pour.

Ozai snarled, still with his back pressed against the iron.

"Well well," Iroh clucked, as if his younger brother was indeed a pouting little child of six or seven again. "If you're going to be testy, I'll just have to drink this pot up alllllll by myself." He settled down cross-legged on the other side of the bars, pressing his back against Ozai's, and staring in the opposite direction, towards the door. He got to work on the tea. The water, leaves, crumbled dates, and other ingredients were already in the pot--all it needed now was a little Firebending.

The teaset was a rather fine one, decorated with a pretty little border of camel-sharks. _Camel-sharks had been Ozai's favorite animal, when he was younger, Iroh had remembered. He had seen this teaset for sale, down at the market, and suddenly thought of it._ Iroh took a long, deliberate sip of the steaming drink, perhaps a little louder than necessary. He turned and looked behind him, briefly. Still no reply.

" _Mmmmmm,_ " he rumbled even more loudly then, with relish. "You can learn a lot from a good pot of tea. It'll warm you up from the inside out--calming, gentle..." he paused thoughtfully. "This one has longan fruit--good for the nerves. And it has ginseng, for energy... oh, and _rock sugar!_ Perhaps that would sweeten your mood, hmmmm?..." Iroh's lips curled up playfully between his fluffy sideburns, as he turned slightly to face his brother again.

The former Fire Lord finally met his eyes, tilting his head against the bars. His black hair hung in unkempt strands, framing his face like a half-closed curtain. "Only you, brother," he spat the words out as if they made him sick; "only you would come in here, praising base sustenance as if it were some sort of _grand prize._ Some wretched form of _contentment...._ "

"The little things can sometimes be how the Big Thing comforts us, if we pay attention," Iroh replied then--more seriously, but gently.

Ozai got up from the floor and rounded on his brother. "Do you know what you are?" his elegant nose contorted in a nasty leer. "You're a washed-up, worn-out failure, Iroh! A lover of creature comforts, old and gray and pathetic. _A fat, lazy, disgusting pig,_ with absolutely _no_ pride or ambition left in your being!"

Iroh, still seated, tried not to laugh. Never in the history of the four nations had an insult missed its aim so badly. "My my my," he clucked primly, blowing the steam off his cup of tea. "And that's supposed to _hurt my feelings,_ is it? You simply noticing that I'm old and fat and comfortable and content?" He smiled from ear to ear, through another sip.

Ozai switched tactics. "My _son_ has come in here sometimes, asking me questions," he hissed.

Iroh was glad, suddenly, that he still had his own face towards the door, and Ozai couldn't see the flash of protective anger across it. _MY son,_ he mentally retorted. _MINE!_ Ozai had signed his right to Zuko away with his own fiery handprint, the day of the Agni-Kai.

"He asks me about his mother," Ozai continued, almost simpering. "But why are _you_ here, Iroh?"

Iroh dared to glance back at his ruined shell of a brother again, the anger ebbing back into sadness. "...For _our_ mother, I suppose, just as the boy comes for his." Iroh remembered a plump and rosy face, giving him the parental kisses he craved, even as a twenty-year-old. As he knelt on a bench in the garden, reaching for the new baby in her lap, and they both laughed fondly over him. _...If Ilah had lived, or if Iroh had not been sent off to war in those years, would things have been different?..._

"Our mother _loved_ you, Ozai," Ilah's elder son cried now, softly. _He had told that to his brother, every time he had visited the prison (this occasion being the third). He just wanted to make sure he knew. He felt it was very important, somehow, for Ozai to know._ "Do you remember her face? Or the things she would sing to you?..."

"She's _dead,_ Iroh," Ozai responded curtly, as if simply being outside of the mortal realm meant a person was not worth thinking about. "...Ursa probably is too," he added.

_The fact that Zuko's mother had not shown up this past year--after news of his crowning had traveled well throughout the four lands--was indeed cause for concern. Iroh and Zuko tried not to talk about it in these terms, but the unspoken heaviness was there--at this point, they were probably looking for a grave, not for a living person. But even a grave would be closure of a sort. Zuko at least deserved to know WHAT HAD HAPPENED to his mother! ...And so far, Ozai had still, stubbornly, refused to give them any leads._

Iroh cleared his throat (and his emotions), sensing an opportunity. "Would you _like_ to talk about Ursa?..." he tried to keep his tone offhanded, sympathetic, masking the interrogation. He was just a brother, after all, reminiscing about a wife.... "You miss her?" _Iroh knew full well, now, what an abusive husband Ozai had been. To think of him actually MISSING Ursa would be stomach-turning--and probably laughable, seeing as Ozai had banished her himself. But if it allowed Iroh to wrest something out of Ozai, that Zuko hadn't been able to get yet... some tiny detail, ANYTHING they could use...._

" _Miss_ her?!" Ozai indeed laughed rudely then, plopping down to sit with his back to Iroh's once more. "Oh, I thank the _fates_ I had at least a few blessed years without her nattering! 'You are too harsh with our children, Ozai!' 'Don't you think we ought to take them to a play again, Ozai?'" he mocked his wife's voice in a high-pitched flutter, the best his own rasping one could manage.

"She always liked to go the playhouse, didn't she?" Iroh allowed himself a small smile, remembering Ursa much more fondly. Rough voices ran in the family, but Iroh's was the purr of a kettle, rather than the hiss of a snake. "I wish Lu-Ten and I had been able to go with you all more often...."

"You'd have probably liked the last one we saw," Ozai snorted. "A comedy, of course. About a rich old man and his four daughters. One of them wedded a tree-spirit, another ended up in a convent. I can't remember what happened to the other two." He let his unkempt head roll lazily against the bars. Then a sneer grew out the corner of his mouth again, his golden eyes almost confused. As if he had just then remembered something that had irked him.

"Do you _know_ what she told me that night, Iroh?!" Ozai propped himself up, confiding in his brother for the first time in over a decade. " _Our Fire princess?!_ We'd had an argument, of course," he allowed, though still royally indignant. "She told me that, if it weren't for the children, she would have preferred she'd ended up in an abbey as well!"

Iroh looked up sharply from his cup. (He had slid another, gently-steaming one inside the bars, by then, though Ozai had not touched it yet.) "An abbey? You think maybe... that's where she would have gone? After--"

"How should _I_ know," Ozai scoffed, falling back against the bars again, eyes lidded and simpering. "What she did once her ship hit Earth Kingdom shores was entirely her own concern." _The ex-Fire Lord probably wasn't lying about that,_ Iroh and Zuko both had deduced, whenever he had told them this before. Ozai hadn't charged Ursa with some impossible task, and surrounded her with a permanent crew, as he had Zuko. Dictating how and where she settled in the Earth Kingdom was basically outside of his power, and not likely to interest him anyway.

But the Earth Kingdom was the largest landmass in the entire world. Knowing which port Ursa had docked at--having that, at least, as their starting point--would narrow their search exponentially.

Iroh shifted himself to face Ozai fully now, gripping one of the iron bars. "This ship..." he leaned in and whispered, as if approaching a wild animal and hoping not to spook it. "Headings?"

Now it was Ozai's turn to suppress a laugh. He smirked wickedly, barely turning his head towards his brother. "Not in your miserable fat life."

Iroh pulled back in disappointment. He thought for a moment, clasping his hands and staring at them. When he looked back up, his amber eyes were soft and sad. "What if we took you out for a walk?" he almost pleaded with his brother. "There would have to be guards, of course--but we could get you some sunshine, let you see the city...."

Ozai's scowl deepened, just as Iroh's voice became brighter and cheerier behind him. "Maybe we could even go outside the caldera, to that spa-grove Mother always loved so much! The one where they give you those delightful cream bowls, and little cups of spicy noodles--"

"Miiiiissssserable sustenance," Ozai cut him off, drawling a contemptuous hiss. Both his voice and his posture truly did seem snake-like now--slinking further into his cell, away from the bars (and further away from Iroh). Then he drew himself up, stared directly at his brother, and lifted his head challengingly. For a moment--with his hair falling back out of his eyes, and his shoulders squared--one could almost imagine the crown on Ozai's head again. "You will not have Ursa's destination, until I have acquittal," he smiled dangerously.

Iroh's own smile disappeared, replaced by something firm and solemn. "You and I both know that is impossible, little brother, with you in your current state." He knelt and placed the rest of the teaset inside the bars, completing his gift. Then he left for the prison's main hall. If Ozai dashed the pottery against a wall in a fit of rage (as he had done with at least one teaset before this), well, that was entirely his own concern.

***

_Over the northwest mountains of the Earth Kingdom, Underking Nianzu came bearing gifts._

During the hundred-year war--with the constant threat of Fire Nation troops--squabbles between Earth Kingdom territories had often felt quite small. Their united efforts against the invaders were, after all, more important.

Now, with the war blessedly over, people had started becoming petty, as people do. Some had the sense, at least, to realize the badgermole-hills should be smoothed, before they became mountains.

Thus, Underking Nianzu had taken a deep breath, as he had plunged his brush deep into his inkwell, and sent his _pleasant regards_ to (the notoriously unpleasant) Underking Zhong. Along with many fine packages of his kingdom's famed hardwoods, golden plates, and magnolia-tulip bulbs, to grace Zhong's city.

Such precious cargo needed protecting, of course--and so, Nianzu had requested the convoy be escorted by the famed Kyoshi Warriors. They would set out within a week.

***

_In one of the rural corners of Zhong's kingdom, at the Abbey of Winterjade, Sokka--son of Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe--came bearing gifts._

Sokka and his girlfriend, Suki, had a curious arrangement, but they were making it work. Water Tribesmen were very attached to their families, and Sokka and his sister Katara still spent at least half the year in the South Pole. Suki often joined Sokka--after all, she realized, Hakoda's family would hopefully be her in-laws, before much longer! But she also had duties with own troop of Kyoshi warriors. And Hakoda approved of his son experiencing more of the world, before he settled down and took over the chieftainship of their clan.

Therefore, roughly two out of the four seasons each year, Sokka tagged along with Suki and her crew--finding missions around the Earth Kingdom, or caring for their own island.

This particular week--on their way to the rendezvous point with the other Warriors, where they would start out with Nianzu's convoy--Sokka and Suki had made a quick stop to Winterjade Abbey.

Hakoda and his dear friend Bato had never forgotten how kind the sisters were to them, when they were injured and in need. Sokka grinned, now, poking his head out from the huge stack of arctic furs his father had sent to nuns.

"Why that is... very kind of you, Master Sokka," Abbess Meirong leaned forward from her chair as Mother Superior, and observed the animal-skins, attempting to be gracious.

" _You_ are _very welcome,_ Abbess!" Sokka intoned chipperly, dropping them in front of her with a muffled *fwumph!* "They should make excellent blankets and rugs, for keeping you ladies toasty in the winter!"

Suki chuckled at her boyfriend, and bowed sweetly to the nuns. Then she took him by the arm. "C'mon, I want to see the perfumes in the courtyard!" she half-whispered.

"I know, I know," Sokka raised his hands, continuing to grin. "'I'm a warrior, but I'm a girl too!'" he teased her, with that line that had sealed their first kiss, over two years ago.

***

The nuns of Winterjade Abbey crafted many fine perfumes, as their main form of trade with the outside world. Travelers would give them coins for their fragrances--and they, in turn, would use those coins for whatever necessities they couldn't grow or make in the abbey grounds.

Right now, a plump, bronze-skinned young nun with a pleasant face was showing Suki her wares. "Ohhhh, _honeysuckle!_ " the Kyoshi Warrior sighed appreciatively, clasping both hands together.

Sokka leaned against a nearby post, watching his girlfriend and smiling broadly. A feathery form swooped down and landed on his head, pecking it affectionately. Sokka chuckled and looked up at his pet, whom he had brought with him on this journey. "She's beautiful, isn't she, Hawky?" he asked the bird rhetorically.

Hawky skriked, which in Sokka's mind meant agreement.

Unbeknownst to him, another figure watched them--a figure keeping timidly near the encircling wall, but staring intently. Sokka finally noticed, when the rustle of her robes reached his ears. She coughed, nibbling at the back of her hand--it was a somewhat older nun, perhaps in her mid-forties, and thinner and slightly paler than the one showing Suki the honeysuckle perfume.

Sokka blinked, shifting Hawky to his shoulder--his expression, though concerned, remained open, and this apparently prompted the nun to speak.

"...Master Sokka? You and the lady--" she jerked her head towards Suki--"you are friends of the Avatar? And of Fire Lord Zuko?"

Sokka began to smile. "Sure are! Why, Sister...?"

"Cuifen," the nun supplied, still hugging herself very timidly.

Sokka was a compassionate boy, and he could tell this woman was afraid, for some reason--though not of him, judging by the pleading look in her eyes. His smile deepened gently, reassuringly. "What's the matter, Sister Cuifen?" he whispered, walking a bit closer to her.

The nun looked down at her shoes, then suddenly back up at him again. "The new Fire Lord--Zuko--would you say he is... merciful?" she was almost trembling.

Sokka felt bad for laughing, with the nun in such distress--but in a way, he figured it might actually reassure her. "Of course he is! He's nothing like the old Fire Lord was. --Or even like _he_ was a couple of years ago, back here at the abbey..." he thought to add, half-chuckling. He remembered that incident--Suki had not been there, but Zuko and Sokka had both been present, and were fighting on opposite sides at that time.

"Seriously, he's good now," Sokka sobered again, as Hawky flew back off his shoulder. He dared to take Cuifen's hand in both of his, to calm her. "Zuko's been a wonderful friend, and he's sorry for all the things he did wrong. --Try not to think of him as that crazy kid who came barreling in here two years ago, flinging fireworks. He's honestly embarrassed of that now. And probably of that bald ponytail too," he cracked another grin.

Cuifen finally managed a small, breathy chuckle of her own, looking down again. "I never even saw what he looked like," she admitted, giggling, her brown eyes then meeting Sokka's blue ones again. "I was indoors at the time, tending to the sick. I did chance one quick look out a window, I remember, hearing all the noise--and I saw that giant, raging shirshu knocking barrels over in the courtyard. So I bolted the shutters up tight and prayed for deliverance!" her giggle finally became a laugh. Sokka returned it. But then Cuifen sobered again.

"I know Lord Zuko has done so much for the world, these past two years--helping the Avatar end the war, making so many new peace treaties." The nun's voice was mellow, when she spoke her sentences clearly and firmly, like this. But then it returned to its hesitant breathiness. "But would you say... he... is very quick to anger? Like when someone has done something--he may see as wrong?"

Sokka's young brow furrowed. "Why? What could a peaceful nun like you have done, that you're so worried would anger him?" he guessed at the heart of the matter, whispering as gently as ever.

By this time, Suki had noticed her boyfriend whispering with Cuifen, clasping her hands with his gloved ones. She tilted her painted face, then tiptoed over with concern. Cuifen startled, for a moment, as the Kyoshi Warrior came to her other side. But then, remembering Suki was with Sokka--and was a friend of the Avatar as well--she calmed somewhat. Still, her eyes held a measure of trepidation, as they darted from one to the other.

"I-i have a secret," Cuifen returned to her stammering, "a-a secret I've never told anyone in this abbey. But it--it will not be able to stay a secret much longer. Can I... can I trust you young ones? To n-not tell the abbess or my other sisters, at least until I do?"

Bless her, those brown eyes were almost watering, trying not to shake out of her skull. Sokka and Suki both were moved with compassion, for this obviously very upset nun.

Sokka smiled winningly at her. "Vow of silence, Sister!" he couldn't help but grin at his quip, but he did so in the most caring of ways.

Suki smiled as broadly-yet-gently as he. "I swear on my fan," she bowed, and grasped the instrument. For a Kyoshi Warrior to invoke their famed, golden weapon like this was sincerity indeed.

Cuifen's eyes wavered again, this time in thankfulness. She managed to swallow and smile in return. "Follow me," she beckoned to both of them, opening the door of the sidewall.

She led them through a narrow hallway, small rooms lining it on either side. Whether these were for patients and guests, or were the nuns' living quarters themselves, Sokka and Suki didn't know. Most of the wooden doors were closed.

"Eleven years ago, a stranger came to the gates of our abbey, begging for refuge," Cuifen began her story, now in a more normal (though still gentle) tone. "She would not tell us her name, or where she came from--only that she desired sanctuary, and would join our number if we would let her. So we put her in a habit, and named her 'Sister Shan.'"

Sokka and Suki looked at each other, as they followed Cuifen further down the corridor. The nun was beginning to smile softly. "Shan and I became very good friends. We were about the same age, and she seemed interested in nearly everything I did. I knew, then, that she must have come from far away--even our flower species were strange to her." Cuifen's smile faded, as she sniffled. "Then, four years ago, the poor fool got herself bitten by a teal-spotted worm, when we went out to the pond a few miles from the abbey, foraging for watercress."

Suki's eyebrows shot up a bit more than Sokka's--she was familiar with this Earth Kingdom species. Both the teal-spotted fly and the waterbound larva were known to carry a severe sleeping-sickness. Cuifen stopped at one of the doors, now, at the end of this quiet corridor. "I tried to warn her not to wade out so far, but--" she lowered her head, very sadly, as she pushed the door open. Inside, on a bed, lay the form of a sleeping woman.

Her hair had long been freed from its habit--both it and the simple shift she was dressed in were clearly easier for the nuns to wash and change, than the full outfit of their order would be. The woman's chest rose and fell very shallowly, her sleeping face unchanging. It was very beautiful, and the lines of age had only recently begun to crease it. Just as two stripes of gray--very pretty, in their way--had begun to grow behind her ears. They, and the rest of her luxurious brown hair, lay spread out around her pillow.

Sister Shan was clearly in a coma.

"I come in here every day, to feed her," Cuifen explained, reaching for a pitcher on the table nearby. It and the bed were the only real furniture in this tiny room. Suki's face creased with sympathy, as she watched the nun pouring a nectar mixture in her friend's mouth. Shan's lips barely moved, but at least she apparently could swallow the life-giving nutrients, even while unconscious. "Is there any possible cure...?"

"Yes, though a very rare one," Cuifen set the pitcher back down, and sat softly at Shan's shoulder, while Sokka took the stool, and Suki the foot of the bed. "Have you heard of cicada-phoenixes?"

"Oh, yes!" Suki's eyes lit up, despite the circumstances. "They're supposed to be very elusive--I've always wanted to see one!..."

Cuifen smiled very briefly, and looked out the room's tiny window, to the mountain beyond the trees. "They live on the mountaintops of our region. For six years, they stay underground as grubs--then, every seventh year, they emerge as adults, and fly about the treetops, until they lay their eggs, and finally die at the end of the year. The feathers of cicada-phoenixes have wondrous healing properties--a cure for the sleeping-fly sickness among them!" Cuifen's smile brightened, then fell again, just as quickly. "But they are, as you said, very elusive, Mistress Suki, especially in their adult stage. Their feathers are extremely prized--we had already used what two or three we had, years ago."

"Do you want _us_ to try to get more for you?" Sokka looked up willingly.

"I would be asking _any_ handy mercenary or volunteer to do so, yes, by the end of the month," Cuifen nodded, smiling warmly at the duo again. "This is the summer of the seventh year--the hatching is now due to start. If you young warriors think you could make the trek up that mountain, of course I would be most grateful!"

"But..." Suki knitted her brow; "why is _that_ such an important secret for us to keep? Don't the other sisters also know about the cure? Don't they want Shan back awake too?"

"Yeah, and... and what's Zuko got to do with any of this?" Sokka also wanted to know, scooting his stool closer.

Cuifen heaved a difficult sigh. "I am coming to that part. You see... _I know Sister Shan's real name._ " Her eyes darted back to theirs, very gravely. Sokka and Suki remained silent--perhaps still a bit puzzled--but they leaned in expectantly.

And so, the middle-aged nun continued. "One morning--a year or so after Shan and I had gotten to know each other--we were mixing perfume, and a bee startled her. It had crawled out from one of the cut flowers. None of the other nuns noticed, when she had cried out, but I had been standing closest to her, and I-- _I saw the flame._ " Cuifen's voice was a deathly whisper. " _I saw the flame flash in her hand!_ Moments before the poor dear panicked, and clapped it out. _She was a Firebender!_ "

"Is--is that why you were so scared Zuko would be angry?!" Sokka finally blurted. "Just because you hadn't told anyone yet, about one of his citizens being a refugee here...?"

Cuifen leaned over her friend, almost protectively, framing Shan's face with her hands. "She is not just one of Lord Zuko's subjects, Master Sokka," the nun trembled now, her breath deep from the effort--as if this was the hardest thing she had ever had to say. " _She is his MOTHER!_ "

Sokka and Suki both gasped, their hands flying to their mouths. Then Suki fell back against her boyfriend, shaking his arm. "Zuko's mom! _We found Zuko's mom!!_ " she nearly squealed, unable to contain her excitement. Sokka hugged her, frantically mouthing "Shhh, shh!", but he was trembling too. They both grinned open-mouthed back at Cuifen--surely their happiness would be reassuring, and contagious to her!

The nun's brown eyes were indeed beginning to open up wide, more hopefully, but she still shook a little. "You do not think he will be--quite furious?" she peeped.

"Sister, if I know Zuko--and I think I do--" Sokka's young face grew more serious again, in its smile; "he'll be too happy with this news, to stay angry for long."

"He'll be _thankful_ that his mother had such a good friend taking _care_ of her!" Suki added, nodding sincerely.

"...Why _didn't_ you say something earlier, though?" Sokka then wanted to know.

Cuifen looked back at the sleeping woman, almost crying. "I was terrified," she admitted, her voice turning both squeaky and damp. "Shan told me everything, eventually, after I had promised not to tell the others she was Fire Nation. She told me her real name--Ursa. She told me how she had two children, two children who had been taken from her--" Cuifen trembled--"how she had had to sacrifice her future, to save one of _them_ from being sacrificed, by her monster of a husband!"

The nun hugged herself for strength again. "When Fire Lord Ozai fell, I rejoiced with the rest of the world--but then, I feared so much for my friend! _What would the new Fire Nation do to her?! Or the Earth Kingdom?!_ " Cuifen's face shot back up, almost defensively. "She was _Fire Lady Ursa!_ The wife of Ozai! Did everyone know how she had feared and despised him?! Or did only _I_ know?! I--I had to wait, t-to see...."

"...To see how relations went between the four nations, after the war," Sokka supplied, then. "To see if Zuko was the Fire Lord you thought he would be--and if he would be able to receive and protect his mother...."

Cuifen nodded frantically, tearfully.

"But--surely after a year or so--" Suki put in.

Cuifen heaved a long sigh. "I know. I know I should have told... but by then, I feared the wrath of the nations for a different reason. What if Fire Lord Zuko became furious, that I hadn't made his mother's whereabouts known to Fire officials, the very moment the war was over?! And even if he was only _mildly_ upset--what would Earth King Kuei, or our Underking Zhong think?!" The nun's brown eyes darted to Suki again. "...Zhong--uses the word 'justice' quite often in his speeches, but he is very rarely known to use the word 'mercy,'" she nibbled the back of her hand again, hesitantly. "What if he chose to make an example of me, or even shut down our whole little abbey?! In the interest of 'showing solidarity' with our new allies--"

"We won't give him that chance," Sokka stood up then, reassuringly. "We're not going through any Fire officials--we're going straight to Zuko himself, through me," he decided. "That is, if I have your permission to write and tell him all this, Sister Cuifen," he added, remembering his promise.

"Yes," the Earth nun nodded, gratefully; "t-thank you, Master Tribesman. The secret _will_ have to come out, after all, one way or another, when Sister Sh--Ursa--awakens, and finds the new world we're living in...."

"Zuko will probably just be glad to know his mom had you, and wasn't _alone_ this whole time," Sokka reassured her kindly again. "I'm going to write him and tell him to meet us here next week, after Suki and I have delivered the goods for Underking Nianzu. We'll all go up that mountain together," he reached for his bag.

"You--you _will_ have to tell Abbess Meirong about this now, though, you realize," Suki looked gently at the Earth nun, also standing up now. She clutched her fan--she, too, remembered the vow they had taken, not one hour before. "We won't break our promise to you, Sister, but--"

"--but your abbess _will_ probably be wanting to know why a giant Fire Nation airship is suddenly landing in your convent's front yard," Sokka finished for her, cocking a wry eyebrow.

Cuifen actually giggled then, in spite of herself. "Y-yes, I suppose she will!" She dabbed at an eye. "I--"

Suki could tell the poor woman was still shaking from the ordeal--it had taken her a lot of courage, to confide in her and Sokka. And it wasn't quite over yet. "Do you want us to go with you?" she offered kindly, putting her arm behind the nun's shoulder.

"...Yes, young one," Cuifen breathed helplessly and nodded. "Thank you, thank you both so much, for all that you--"

"Come on," the Kyoshi Warrior smiled gently, already leading her out of the room.

***

Sokka, Suki, and Cuifen went to find Abbess Meirong, in the convent's sanctuary room. "Mother Superior," Suki curtsied respectfully to the elderly nun; "Sister Cuifen has something that she needs to tell you."

"Yes, my child?" Meirong's brow screwed up quizzically, but not unkindly, beneath her bud-shaped habit.

Cuifen gulped, using one hand to clutch Suki's, and the other to clutch the beads of her necklace very tightly, as if for support.

The Kyoshi Warrior decided she should start the speech for the nervous nun. "It is a secret, that she has kept for many years now--but Sokka and I understand why she kept it. And we pray that you will, too." She stepped aside.

"M-Mother Superior," Cuifen began, "eleven years ago, as you know, we welcomed Sister Shan to this abbey--not knowing from whence she came, but trusting in her purity of heart. A little over a year after that, when we were cutting flowers..."

Sokka scribbled busily on a scroll, while his girlfriend dealt with the sisters. He chewed thoughtfully on his inkbrush, reviewing one line, then darting down further and adding another. Finally, after about ten minutes of this, he wandered to the sanctuary's entryway, open to the courtyard. He whistled for Hawky.

The messenger-hawk hopped out from the eaves where he had been playing, and glided gracefully to his master. "Hawky!" Sokka smiled affectionately at his pet, as he rolled up the scroll.

_In the training of messenger-hawks, a wise owner would choose symbols for all of the bird's senses--sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste--to associate with its delivery goals._

The young Water Tribesman pulled some red berries from his bag, offering them to his pet to gulp down. They matched the same vibrant red as the scroll-cap, which he made sure to tap against Hawky's beak, where he could see, before slipping the scroll inside the secure container on the bird's halter. Then, finally, he petted Hawky's forehead twice, and traced a "Z" shape in front of his eyes. "Zuko. ZU-KO!" he repeated.

Hawky squawked. Sokka grinned, and released him into the sky.

***

"Iiiii'm gonna get you...."

_Some members of the Fire Nation nobility would say that Lord Zuko was far too old to play childish games, even after he tended to his duties._

"Gihee! YEEEP!" Chiko squealed as Zuko whipped her out from behind a giant vase with his arms, grinning.

_Some members of the Fire Nation nobility could go sit on a tack._

Zuko loved these playtimes with his adoptive little sister (well, adoptive cousin, according to the courts--but Iroh, Zuko, and Chiko knew better). Recovering the childhood he had never fully had was a blessed release to him, and allowed him to face his duties more full and refreshed. Hide-and-seek was one of Chiko's favorite games--and if the Amber Dragon provided ample hiding places, the Fire palace was an entire smorgasbord.

"One, two, three..." the little girl had already leaned against the wall and begun to count, expecting her playmate to take his turn hiding. (Thirty seconds was the agreed amount of time the seeker had to count, in the teashop--but in the palace, with its long halls and rooms, their little family had agreed that the wisest house rules would be to count to sixty.)

Suddenly, a servant walked in, with a scroll on a tray.

"Just a minute, Little Ko," Zuko apologized to the child, taking a seat with the message. "Let me read this letter first." He cracked a smile as he recognized Sokka's handwriting.

 _Dear Zuko,_ the note began;

_BIG NEWS! Suki and me are on a Very Important Ambassadorial Trip with the Fan Girls (don't tell her I called them that), and we stopped at this abbey to deliver some skins for Dad and Bato._

_...You remember Winterjade Abbey too, don't you? I mean, I know we try not to talk about the Bad Old Days (my tailbone still hurts from being tied up on that shirshu, ow). But since we all used that bounty hunter and her shirshu to find your uncle later, I didn't think you'd mind me mentioning it. --Chiko never got to see the shirshu, did she? I've included a very realistic sketch of it and yours truly for her!_

Zuko's eyes traveled to an ink-splotted doodle in the margin of the letter, and he tried not to burst out laughing. It bore the vague semblance of a huge mess of fur with fangs, and there was a stick figure riding it, with a "wolf-tail" puff and a boomerang, identifying it as Sokka. Both the figure's arms and its simple mouth were opened triumphantly, clearly proud of itself.

"Hey Chiko?" Zuko called to his little family member. "You remember Mister Sokka?"

Chiko stumbled forward with a gap-toothed grin. " _Yeah!_ " Zuko's friends had visited at least three times, now, since Chiko's adoption last year, and she had been quite tickled by the funny Water Tribesman.

"He remembers _you,_ " Zuko grinned fondly, beckoning her to see. "He drew you a picture."

Chiko looked up at the proferred scroll and giggled appreciatively, feeling quite special. Zuko chuckled softly in return, and leaned back, continuing to read.

_Anyways, Suki wanted to look at the nuns' perfume--or smell it, I guess would be the better word for that? Oh, heck, I guess I'm just rambling here, Buddy, because I don't know how to lead into this. I know you might be about some of your Very Royal Fiery business, and I'm pretty sure what I'm going to say may shock you, because this is the Big News. So I'll ask you--are you alone? And are you sitting down?_

Zuko's brow furrowed a bit, as he unrolled the scroll farther and found a short expanse of it blank. Then another, single line.

_(Go sit down.)_

The young Fire Lord blew a snort, settling back further in his chair and trying not to laugh again. _Sokka certainly knew how to drag out a joke...._

Another several inches of blank paper. And then...

_We found your mom._

Zuko dropped the scroll in his lap immediately, drawing a great, sucking gasp of air. His hands flew to his mouth, his mild amusement instantly replaced by an explosion of emotions, as mixed as they were profound.

So many fading hopes, now brought blazingly back to life. So many anxieties still unanswered. So many precious memories, now flooding down Zuko's cheeks as tears.

Chiko had been playing at the young Fire Lord's feet, and started at the involuntary noise he had made. She looked up to see her adoptive brother shaking violently, his eyes big and wet.

"Big Ko, what's wrong?!" the tiny princess cried. She stumbled over her pink kimono.

Zuko scarcely heard her--he had grabbed the scroll back up, scanning it hungrily.

_She's alive, but she's in a coma. But there's a cure! The nuns say there are these bug-birds up in the mountains that have feathers that will wake her up. We're gonna go look for them when they start hatching out of the ground next week. In fact we thought maybe you would like to be there too._

"BIG KO!!" Chiko's shout of distress, and her tugging at his legs, finally snapped his attention back from his frantic reading. "Has something horrible happened?! Is Mister Sokka okay?!!" her own little amber eyes were starting to bead tears now, too, as she squeaked. The child had no idea what the problem was, but she could tell it was something very big, from the way Zuko's eyes bulged and his hands trembled around the scroll--which had started out so cheerful, with its funny little drawing for her! Mister Sokka was so kind.

"It's not something _bad,_ Little Ko," Zuko finally gulped air and managed to speak, with great effort. _Was this what it felt like to have a heart attack?_ "I need you to get Dad. P-please," he looked almost desperately at his heart-sister, fighting to keep his voice calm and clear for her. "Just--go get Dad!" _There was only one person he knew who could help him through this._ It was as he had told Chiko, the tidings were not BAD--they were wondrous. But they had hit him with all the force of a tank.

Chiko, still very worried and confused, dashed down the hall. Zuko sat back and willed his chest to stop convulsing, stroking it. He read the rest of Sokka's letter, with a still-trembling hand.

_There was also this nun, Cuifen. She was so scared that you would be angry, that she hadn't told anyone about Ursa before. So please let me tell you her story..._

***

Iroh was busy reading something too--after the emotionally-exhausting time he had had at the prison yesterday, he had decided to curl up with an old romance novel, this afternoon. It was one of his favorites from the palace library--he dabbed at a sentimental tear, as he turned a page to one of its most beautiful scenes.

"Bapa, Bapa!!" Chiko suddenly barreled in, crying. "You gotta come quick and help Big Ko!!"

Iroh slammed the book shut in alarm, righting himself from his couch almost immediately. "What is it, sweetheart?!!" his heart leapt in his throat, for the sake of both his living children. He let Chiko grab his big hand, following her out of the room even as they spoke.

"I dunno, he was readin' a letter from Mister Sokka, and then he just froze up and started cryin' and shakin'!" the little girl sobbed.

Iroh ran surprisingly fast, for someone of his age and girth.

***

The elder prince burst into the sun-room where Zuko sat, his wide sleeves and his topknot-ribbon both flying behind him. Chiko came stumbling after, her little legs struggling to keep up.

"Zuko!" Iroh cried--thankful to find the young lord unhurt, but disturbed to find him so wide-eyed. Zuko's slender knees were still hugged up to his chest in the chair, along with the scroll. "Zuko, my _son,_ what is it?!"

"Dad!" Zuko gasped in relief, finally letting his hand fall from his mouth. Iroh and Chiko could see, then, that Zuko was smiling--mostly. But it was an overwhelmed sort of smile, as if fearful things were too good to be true. The younger Firebender's tears were still sparkling, even out of his burned eye.

" _Sokka found Mom!_ "


	2. Chapter 2

Zuko laid his old traveling robe in his trunk, along with a few gold hairpins. There were enough outfits there for a week, maybe less. Even as Fire Lord, he always preferred to travel light.

_Unlike some others he knew._

"Can I help you pack, Big Ko?" Chiko came bouncing behind him.

"Iiii think I'm already done, Little Ko," he told the child patiently, with a faint smile.

"Do you have enough stuff to do on the airship?" Chiko's amber eyes showed genuine concern.

"Why should I need to do stuff on the airship?"

"So you don't get bored!" Zuko's adoptive little sister thought this was obvious.

"Well what about you?" he turned the question on her.

Chiko beamed. "I have some parchments to practice more calligraphy, and Bapa's bringin' his card deck. And I've got Rei." (She was toting her beloved handkerchief-doll in one arm, currently, hugging it.) " _And_ Bapa promised he's gonna tell me the story of how the panda-weasel lost his ball of yarn and chased it into the Spirit World... I haven't heard him tell that one before, he says it's a new one he made up, especially for the ride!" she grinned.

"So what, I'm not allowed to listen too?" Zuko cocked his scarred eyebrow good-naturedly.

Chiko's face instantly fell in sympathy. "Of _course_ you are, Big Ko!" She dropped Rei and hugged her adoptive brother's leg, as if to say, _I know my Bapa is yours too, please never forget._

Zuko reached down to pet her head, but the moment she pulled her face back out of his silky robe, she noticed something else. "Oh! Ooh! At least bring this!" The little girl stumbled towards a tsungi horn in the corner of Zuko's room, on display (and rather dusty from disuse) on a low chest-of-drawers. She tugged at the fine cloth under it, as if trying to lug the whole thing towards Zuko's trunk.

"NO! We are NOT taking the tsungi horn!" Zuko put his hand between Chiko's and the bulky instrument, almost in a knifeblade-like maneuver. _And don't you DARE bring this up to Dad! He'll be begging me to play it again...._

As if on cue, Iroh suddenly appeared in the doorframe. "Zuko!" he bounced as cheerily as Chiko had (with a bit of a jiggle as he did so). "Do you have everything ready to take to the royal airpad?"

Zuko gawked as he saw four rather flustered servants following behind Iroh, each loaded down with a trunk at least as large as the one Zuko was taking.

_Iroh had never complained about making do with very little, during their time as refugees in the Earth Kingdom--and indeed, he always showed humility and gratitude, in the things that pleased him. It didn't matter to Iroh how fancy or how inexpensive a kimono, a board game, a brush, a cushion, or a fine spread of food was--what was important was that they made him and others around him happy. Indeed, it seemed the old man could pull happiness right out of the sky, with no possessions at all--all these little trinkets were mere vessels, just like his teapots._

_But, so long as he DID have them, and Zuko had the porters to carry them... why NOT take them everywhere?_

Zuko rolled his eyes heavenward.

"Oh, and your tsungi horn!" Iroh cried out with delight, pointing. "Zuko, don't you think that we could--"

"I am NOT playing the tsungi horn!!" the irksome former prince declared, shooing his adoptive family out of his sanctum. He did have important business to tie up, after all, before they could be away on their errand to retrieve his mother.

...It was only this morning, in fact, that his head had cleared enough to think of other details besides precisely that--the emotional heart of their journey.

One of those details had been informed by messenger-hawk three days prior, and had only just arrived at the palace steps. Zuko brushed past Iroh and Chiko, as the excited voices down the hall (and the faint grunting of a very large animal) let him know that he was finally in the courtyard.

***

"Aang!"

The young Avatar floated down from where he had been spinning in the air (showing off his air-scooter trick, the delight of the curious Fire servants gathered around). His yellow cape fluttered behind him like sparrow-wings, matching his smile in its brightness. "Zuko!"

Zuko ran towards him, completely unashamed to enfold the Avatar in a hug. The fourteen-year-old monk giggled as he tiptoed to reach Zuko's shoulder--he was still a head shorter than the nineteen-year-old Fire Lord.

"Thanks, buddy," Zuko whispered to Aang, before he even let go. "I owe you one."

"It's all right, Zuko," Aang smiled brightly; "It's been nearly two months since I've been in the Fire Nation, and I've been meaning to catch up on all the new dances!" The young Avatar did a little hopskip for effect, as his friend released him. "I'm just sad I won't be able to meet your mom."

Zuko patted his shoulder again, as he steered him towards one of the hall entrances. "You will when we bring her back, I promise. Maybe she'll even give you a big, sloppy kiss like she always did me!"

"Bleck!" Aang made a comical face, still teasing.

Chiko and Iroh were still playing with Appa in the courtyard. Iroh stood by Appa's tail, catching Chiko as she slid down it again and again, both of them laughing, as Aang and Zuko disappeared inside.

Councilwoman Den-Cho was waiting for them in the study. She smiled very humbly at the Avatar, her flamboyant hair ornaments tinkling as she bowed. Aang greeted her with the same Fire Nation hand-salute--the two had met at least once before.

"Den-Cho, I want you to handle any small affairs that come up while I'm gone," Zuko now touched his advisor's shoulder. "Save any large ones that can wait until I come back. And if they absolutely can't wait, then please ask the Avatar for his advice and clearance. _Especially_ if they're international matters."

"Of course, your Majesty," Den-Cho agreed. Zuko was thankful she was a good-natured sort, who did not look down on Aang for his age (let alone for any more racist reason). Den-Cho could sometimes be a little batty, but she at least was one of the most purehearted and open-minded Fire nobles he had been able to find, to appoint to his cabinet at the beginning of his reign. (His father's advisors, of course, had all had to go--even the meeker ones who hadn't been outright imprisoned.)

_Whenever Zuko had to travel outside of the country, he always left one of his inner ring, like Den-Cho, in charge. He would rotate them, and call Aang in for extra advice, and to add his authority as the Avatar._

_Zuko's lack of an heir was, of course, a worry, should the unthinkable happen. He had remedied that, temporarily, by leaving a note, in a vault of the Dragonbone Catacombs--deep in the locked jaws of the most ancient and impenetrable dragon statue. No one knew the scroll's contents--the name of Zuko's appointed successor. They only knew that the scroll existed, and that Zuko had the key equally well-guarded. Therefore, no fights could break out amongst his cabinet--no nobles could clamor with each other, for the coveted position._

_Not even Iroh himself knew, that Zuko had named him--the elderly, former crown prince--as his temporary successor. Zuko wanted Iroh to have the simple life he knew the old man craved so much. The instructions were simply for Iroh--after he had finished grieving, and held the position of Fire Lord secure, for that short while--to comb the countryside for the wisest, kindest, and most capable Fire person he could find, to be the true successor._

_Zuko trusted his uncle-turned-adoptive-father's ability to judge a person's character, be they noble or peasant. And he looked forward to the day when he could marry Jin, and start a family of his own, and burn that hopefully-unneeded note to ashes. Maybe having his mother back could even help that, too--she would be another person Zuko knew he could trust._

Not that Zuko went anywhere unguarded, of course, be the travel domestic or abroad! He smiled as he saw Lt. Yumi and Capt. Karou playing in the courtyard now as well. The nearly-inseparable duo had been present on that fateful voyage, when Chiko had come into their lives via a barrel of plums. Now Karou--nearly as short and stocky as Iroh--was taking his turn catching Chiko from the "Appa slide," while Iroh himself was paying Yumi some sort of compliment about her prettiness. Judging by the way she was covering her face and giggling, anyway. _The silver-tongued old rogue...._

That just left Lt. Jee in charge of the royal guard at home, while Yumi and Karou accompanied Zuko and his family in the airship. Jee now stood rather stiffly near Den-Cho and Aang, who were already cutting up (Aang showing off his marble trick-- _honestly,_ would he never get tired of that?).

Zuko winked at gray-haired lieutenant, as he strode back outside. "Hold the fort while I'm gone, Jee," he whispered, with his typical soft, lopsided grin. "Don't let those two bully you."

He had forgotten that Airbenders had exceptionally good hearing. "Oh, I'm sure we'll do _fine,_ won't we, Lt. Hotman?!" Aang leaped over Den-Cho's desk, beaming up at his former adversary.

Jee attempted an awkward chuckle, in his rough baritone. "With all due respect, Avatar, the last person I ever heard use that slang was my grandmother."

"Call me Aang!" the little Avatar continued to beam, quite oblivious to the rest. "Say, you never did get to see Appa up close, did you? Even though you were on Zuko's ship chasin' us! Want to go for a ride on him?"

"I'd really rather n--"

But Aang was already tugging on Jee's wristguard, nearly making him drop his spear. The middle-aged officer groaned, resigned to his fate.

If Zuko laughed, he was careful to hide it.

***

Iroh and Chiko both pressed themselves against the airship window, watching the ocean below. Chiko's little brown topknot nearly wiped the glass, she was craning so hard. And despite the gray whiskers now squashed beneath his chubby cheeks, somehow Iroh's face looked nearly as childlike as his daughter's. _The waves were so far away... it felt so different, seeing them like this._

Zuko sat with his long sleeves folded calmly, in the couchlike seat-row of this airship compartment. He was more experienced, having had at least a few more travels through the sky, than his family members so far.

"...It is a shame that we do not have a net long enough to dip into the sea, down there," Iroh mused, after a while. "We could catch some fish for supper, like we used to do on the boat!"

"Ugh, don't tell me you _miss_ that, Dad," Zuko wriggled his head and shoulders in disgust. "We ate enough fish for ten years, in those three!"

"I _do_ miss it," Iroh went on stubbornly, his voice as offhanded and pleasant as ever. "Our cook made the most delicious sushi rolls I had ever tasted in my life!" He looked almost mournfully back at the ocean, as if wondering if he'd ever get to eat that magnificent tuna-shrimp maki again. The last he heard, their old cook had found a home on Whale Tail Island, and had started a restaurant there.

"Well, sorry, but we have chicken-pork salad and vegetable dumplings today, from what I hear," Zuko let his father-figure and their little tagalong know. "Yumi's got them in the cooler on the flight deck, for now."

Chiko was playing with Rei again, holding the doll out with one hand. She flapped its little "arms," making it fly, just like this great airship they were in. "Bbbbbbrrrrrmmm..." she took Rei on a diving course to a seat near Zuko, then grinned up at him, as she plopped down. The Fire Lord chuckled softly.

"Well! While we're waiting--" Iroh announced, finally taking his seat between them (with quite a tremendous *fwumph!* of cushions); "--I think we need a little spot of tea!" He reached under the chair, and suddenly produced a large square basket with a lid.

" _Really,_ Dad," Zuko couldn't help but chuckle more audibly now, half in chastisement--"how did you even smuggle that in here?! Someone might think your time in the Spirit World gave you the ability to conjure teasets from thin air."

"Oh, wouldn't _that_ be nice!" Iroh clucked happily in agreement, as he pulled a big green teapot out. _No magical ability would have pleased him more!_ "But, I am afraid this is just an ordinary parcel I set aside from my trunks, while we boarded."

Chiko peeked up over his arm (as did Rei's tiny cloth head), as Iroh began filling the pot with its accompanying waterskin. "Did you bring cinnamon, Bapa?" she smiled eagerly.

"Of _course_ I did, sweetheart!" _What a silly question!_ Iroh opened another compartment in the basket, revealing at least twenty different sachets of flavors. He smiled kindly, over his other arm. "And what kind of tea would _you_ like, Zuko?"

Zuko looked down at his hands, which were fidgeting together. "Jasmine," he asked, his husky voice suddenly timid. "Or something else that will calm me."

Iroh decided to make this first pot to Zuko's request, since he seemed to be the one most in need of it. "What's troubling you, my boy?" the old prince's own, gravelly voice was like a warm nest, now grown serious, as he Firebent the kettle.

Zuko let out a harsh breath. "...What if there was some mixup? What if this lady Sokka found isn't Mom at all?" The Fire Lord clutched his kimono around himself, in insecurity--now seeming much more like a young prince of eight, the same way he was when Ursa left. "Or what if she is, but the cure doesn't work?! What if she--what if she never wakes up?!!" A fat tear suddenly poked out of his good eye, uninvited.

Iroh and Chiko looked at their family member with concern. He was actually shaking. Chiko had dropped down from her chair now, and come running over to Zuko's legs. "Big Ko..." the little princess held her brother's knee, her eyes big and serious and sad. "Big Ko, I would be _happy_ if there was even a _chance_ to find my mother again!"

Zuko managed to smile through the growing tears, suddenly very humbled. _At least there's a chance MY mother is still alive. Poor little Chiko's isn't._ "...Of course, little Ko," he breathed softer again. "I'm sorry."

" _No,_ Big Ko, I don't want you to be sorry!" Now Chiko was the one crying over the misunderstanding. "I just want you to feel better. I don't want you to be sad." She promptly crawled into his lap and hugged him.

This was almost too much for Iroh--he nearly forgot to keep one hand bending a flame under the teapot, as he drew his babies closer with the other arm. "Ohhhh..." he rumbled lovingly, his heart broken and filled both at once, watching them.

No one said anything, for the next few moments--they all just leaned into each other, a little hush of family. When the tea was ready, Iroh passed the cups around, still barely making a noise--except for the pouring of the spout, and the brushing of his big, aged hands against his children's.

They drained the jasmine cups, sip by sip. Then, finally, Zuko smiled. It would still be a few hours before they landed in the Earth Kingdom--and there was no sense in spending that time unhappy. "Little Ko, didn't you say Dad was going to tell you a story?" he asked his adoptive little sister.

" _Yeah!_ " Chiko suddenly remembered, grinning up at their guardian. Iroh chuckled and opened his arms for her. The little girl crawled from one royal Firebender's lap into the other's.

"You ready?" Iroh asked, as Chiko snuggled into his big, warm belly (made even warmer with the tea). She nodded happily, from all the coziness.

Iroh chuckled again, looking up at his other (living) child. "Are _you_ ready?" he whispered. It was clearly an _I know you were asking for a story too,_ a _Don't be shy,_ and an _I love you,_ all at once.

Zuko looked briefly over his shoulder, noting they were still alone in this room of the airship carriage. His crooked smile grew more full. _All right._ He snuggled over Iroh's shoulder, letting his age and his title both slip away, in the magic of the moment. _It was good to be a child again, once in a while._

For the next half-hour, Iroh made a panda-weasel's journey to find its missing ball of yarn so captivating, his children scarcely noticed the clouds passing over the blimp outside. He only paused once, to brew them all another round of tea--cinnamon this time, for Chiko.

Maybe it was the warmth of the tea, or maybe it was the slow, soothing rumble of their guardian's voice, but the little princess soon drifted off to sleep. Her tiny snore, muffled against Iroh's chubby chest, punctuated the climax of the tale--just as the panda-weasel finally found its pink yarn, in the nest of a giant spirit-crane.

"Ohhh," Iroh whispered up at Zuko, almost disappointed; "and I was just getting ready to tell her how the friendly spirit-crane carried the panda-weasel back home."

"Was that going to be the end of the story?" Zuko asked, whispering equally softly.

"More or less."

"Then it was a good story."

Iroh's chuckle was a very tender one, now, as he looked back up at his boy.

They both spent a moment, watching Chiko fondly--curled up there in the squashy folds of Iroh's kimono, around her doll. This precious little girl, that Heaven had given to both of them to love.

And then they looked at each other again.

_For so long, Iroh had been the only source of tenderness in Zuko's life. His only supporter and protector, after Ursa had left._

_His cheerleader... his fortress... his mother hen... his best friend. Even if he hadn't always appreciated those things, the way he should have._

The two men's eyes both watered. They touched foreheads, the love between them powerful, needing no words, in that moment.

_They both remembered that day, that day when their hearts had both been ripped apart... and somehow, they had managed to keep each other whole, by gluing their halves together._

***

_It was a time when Zuko was still a fairly small child, and his face unscarred. A time when Iroh's hair was still a very dark brown (though beginning to recede in front), and his waistline not quite as bulging (though still thicker than it had been in his prime)._

_The Dragon of the West had returned from his cancelled siege of Ba-Sing-Se. And he was met with the coldest of welcomes, there in the heart of the city of Fire._

The servants and dignitaries bowed to him, as they always did--for he was still their prince. But not their monarch, as everyone for over fifty years prior had always assumed he would be.

The palace doors opened for him, looking exactly the same as when he... and Lu-Ten... had left. But the halls inside somehow felt empty now--emptier than they ever had in all his life. The swish of a curtain here and there was the only noise, and somehow, it was deafening. It hurt his ears... the sunlight on the tiles sparkled too much, hurting his eyes....

"Welcome, Brother." Ozai's voice, rich and purposeful with ceremony, nonetheless held unmistakable gloating in its rasp. The new Fire Lord spread his arms--not to offer an embrace, but to show off the finery of his robes. To catch the sparkle of the sun in his crown, even more blinding than the tiles.

It was almost a relief, to Iroh, to kneel and bow his head, so that he wouldn't have to look.

_The loss of Lu-Ten, and the revelations he had had in the Spirit World after it, had taken all the poison of pride out of Iroh. He was a new man, wanting nothing but love and simplicity now. And time to grieve. He didn't even WANT the kingship anymore--in a way, he was glad he had lost it. The only thing that concerned him about Ozai having it, was what that would mean for the world._

_But to have someone laughing and parading himself over him, instead of comforting him in this hour of need--that ached abominably._

And to have the palace staff whispering hesitantly behind his back, darting away from him, not knowing what to say in his presence--Iroh had never felt so alone.

_So many faces were missing now. Lu-Ten, Ursa...._

Beyond the formalities expected of both of them, it seemed the two royal brothers had very little to say to each other. And so Iroh had left the grand hall, seeking the solace of his chambers.

On the way there, he did encounter one familiar face--his niece, Azula. The child had never really taken to him like Zuko had--though she had only been around five, when Iroh had left for Ba-Sing-Se, Azula's childlike babble had already been laced with insults, where her uncle was concerned. "Big dumb fatty!" Ozai, of course, had encouraged this--and probably taught it to her in the first place.

Nevertheless, Iroh had laughed patiently, always trying to make friends with his niece and her little cronies. He _loved_ children. And indeed, the other little girl, who was often brought over to play with Azula--Ty-Lee, wasn't that her name?--had apparently thought him great fun, making silly faces with him every time they visited.

Iroh swallowed his grief for a moment, now, to put on a smile for his niece. "Hello again, Azula," he knelt closer to her level, hands on stocky knees. "My goodness, how you have grown!..." The princess was indeed nearly seven years old now, and almost a head taller than when he had seen her last.

She stared boldly up at him, her little amber eyes bright and challenging. "Dad's the Fire Lord now," was all she said.

"Yes, I can see that," Iroh nodded, gently and patiently as ever.

"You're a failure."

A few months ago, Iroh might have grown angry at this. But he had gone through such a transformation, in the past few weeks, he barely bristled. Power and acclaim meant nothing to him now. He had learned the value of peace over aggression--at oh, such a terrible cost!--and he wished that he could help his niece and nephew learn it, too, now, in a far less painful way. If only they would listen.

"Well, whatever you wish to call me," the aging prince rumbled softly, "perhaps you would not begrudge this old warrior joining you for a tea party?..."

Azula folded her arms petulantly. "I don't want to play with you." She turned her back to her uncle, pausing for a moment. "I'd rather play with Cousin Lu-Ten, but he didn't come home."

Iroh straightened back up and took two steps backwards, struck dumb. His own amber eyes welled immediately, at the mention of his poor dead son's name.

"And I _hate_ tea parties," the little girl added rather meanly, as she strode away.

Iroh scarcely heard her. He had turned the opposite way and fled, unable to keep from sobbing, as he thought of Lu-Ten. He shielded his face with one arm, now, his sleeve the best sponge he could manage, for his waterfall of tears. Suddenly, another young figure appeared in his path--running just as quickly, and nearly as tearfully, as he. Towards him.

"Uncle! _Uncle!!_ "

It was Zuko.

Iroh stopped himself just in time to avoid a collision with his nephew. "Oh Zuko...."

The two remaining Fire princes let their remaining velocity carry them into each other's arms.

"I missed you, Uncle!" Zuko squeaked and sobbed into Iroh's shoulder. " _I missed you!!_ "

"Oh my dear boy." Iroh managed to clear his voice, just long enough to say it. " _I missed you too!_ "

"I'm so sorry about Cousin Lu-Ten, Uncle," Zuko's own little voice choked up, now, as he burrowed deeper into Iroh's chest. An even tighter hug was the only reply he received, to that.

Finally, the elder prince released his grip just enough, for the young golden eyes to meet his amber ones again. "M-Mom's gone too," Zuko sobbed softly, staring up at the only comforter he had left. "Dad won't tell me what happened to her! Do you know, Uncle? I-is she...?"

Iroh didn't know it was possible, but his heart shattered even more, then. _Please make it better,_ his nephew's dribbling eyes seemed to be begging him. _Please bring my mother back, if you can, or at least tell me where she is! You're my only hope!_

Iroh had heard about Ursa's disappearance, too, by now, but the details beyond that were as much a mystery to him, as they were to his nephew. And he was greatly saddened by this, too--Iroh had loved his sister-in-law very much. All he knew he could do was nurture and comfort the hysterical boy, in her stead.

"Let's... let's go out to the garden," Iroh finally whispered, his guttural voice still trembling. He carried eight-year-old Zuko in his arms as easily as he might have done when Zuko was two. And somehow, as lost as he had been before, he now remembered the exact path to the pond-courtyard, from this palace wing.

There, under the tree where Ursa used to sit with Zuko, the two princes poured their hearts out to each other, with barely any words at all. Iroh cradled Zuko in his arms, rocking him back and forth--creating a rhythm, to synchronize their breaths and their aching heartbeats. Slowly, their shared shudders of grief became less violent, less frequent.

"I'm so sorry, Uncle," Zuko kept repeating, in a quavering peep.

Iroh rubbed the back of his nephew's head under his ponytail, and kissed the little brow above it, again and again, in reply.

_Bless this sweet child. Heaven and all four Elements bless him! In the middle of his own grief, he even thinks to comfort me in mine!_

Something very important happened, then.

Iroh realized that this boy--this little prince he held in his arms--was not just his nephew.

_He was his second son._

He had _always_ loved Zuko. Ever since Ursa had presented him with the little bundle, cooing, "Meet your uncle!" and Iroh had pressed his big snub nose against the giggling baby's, only days old....

And when he had taken Zuko and Lu-Ten to play together... when he had scampered happily with them outside, or let them both lay against his chest and nap....

Perhaps Iroh had _always_ thought of Zuko more as Lu-Ten's brother, than as Lu-Ten's cousin.

But today, Iroh decided that "perhaps" was just not enough.

He was going to make it a promise.

_He was going to love Zuko unconditionally, no matter what!_

***

For Iroh, it had been that moment beside the turtleduck pond, when he and his nephew had truly become father and son.

For Zuko--though he definitely did love his uncle!--the realization had come years later, sometime during his journey with Aang and his friends. When he had yearned for the old man every day, and had cursed himself for ever choosing Ozai above him--for ever thinking that blood, and promises of honor, were worth more than love and support, so freely given.

When Zuko had fallen back into Iroh's arms, in the White Lotus camp, he had known finally that he was home, and that _this_ man was truly his father. But he had still called Iroh "Uncle," for a year or so after that. Perhaps because the memories of Ozai were too sharply connected to the other terms.

And then Chiko had come into their lives, and had called Iroh "Bapa"--her cute, made-up term for a father--so happily and freely. And somehow, this had unlocked something, deep inside of Zuko... and suddenly, the word "Dad" tasted so sweet on his tongue, in a way it never had before.

He had given it to Iroh without a second thought. He had never called Ozai "Dad" once after that. Now Ozai was always just "the past Fire Lord," or "my father," when the blood relation _had_ to be brought up at all.

But Ursa... Ursa, of course, was still "Mom," just as she deserved to be. Her love had preserved Zuko's life, just as Iroh's love had healed it.

Zuko's brow furrowed now, in the present, as he looked over at Iroh, who was still leaning peacefully on his shoulder.

_Iroh had repeatedly taken pains, especially in these last two years, to tell Zuko that he was not a REPLACEMENT for Lu-Ten. That he loved Zuko FOR HIMSELF--as his second son, not as a copy of his first. That Zuko would be no less cherished by him, if Lu-Ten suddenly came back to life._

_...Did Zuko need to give that same reassurance now?_

"Dad..." the young Fire Lord nudged his guardian's forehead with his nose, stirring him back into wakefulness. "I want you to know... even when we bring Mom back--" (he said "when," rather than "if," trying to remain positive about his previous worries--) "I'll never stop needing you. You'll always be my parent."

Iroh's resulting blink may have been to clear the sleepiness from his brain--but more likely, it was to clear the happy tears from his lashes. "Oh my dear child, don't you think I know that?" he whispered back, just as sweetly.

"Good," Zuko's quiet smile perked up. The two of them sat in companionable silence again, rocking back and forth--careful not to wake Chiko, sandwiched between them.

And then another, more uncomfortable worry registered in Zuko's mind.

"...What are we going to tell Mom about Azula?" his whisper held a tinge of anguish, now--though spoken as quietly as ever. Of all the conversations Chiko needed to slumber through, it was this one.

Iroh looked up at his adoptive son again, almost in surprise. "The truth," he stated, simply. Then his own brow furrowed, realizing what Zuko meant. "Slowly. Gently. With tact." His amber eyes were pained.

_Iroh felt deeply sad for Azula, just as he knew Zuko often did. He would have made that same love-pledge to her, taking her as a daughter--just as he had taken Chiko now, and just as he had taken Zuko as a son. But alas, Iroh and Azula had never even been able to grow close enough for that first step to occur. Largely because of all the times Iroh had been away from home, in the field. And because of the wedge of hatred that Ozai had so diligently nurtured in Azula, and had driven between them._

_And when Zuko was banished--then Iroh had had no choice at all. He could not be two places at once. He HAD to go with the child to whom he HAD made that lifelong pledge of love! And the child who would almost certainly die without an adult guardian like him--out there alone, so far from home! And the child whom he had more of a chance to save from Ozai's talons--at least Zuko occasionally LISTENED to him, even then._

_And then, when their paths and Azula's had crossed again--she had become their enemy. Sent to kill them, by Ozai's own orders!_

_Iroh and Zuko neither one aimed to kill Azula in return. But Iroh had impressed upon Zuko that they would have to somehow, non-lethally incapacitate her, outmaneuver her, in order to survive. Simply talking to Azula, at that point during her hunt in the desert, would have meant risking both their lives._

_And there was a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation._

_The old Fire prince, who had had so much to forgive in his own past, was the first to hold out hope for every soul. Including his niece's. He prayed so often, now, that she would come to the light, just as he did. He forgave her freely._

_But he would not wish Zuko--or himself--to go near Azula now, without the nurses and the restraints, at her mental facility on Ember Island. Just as he would probably never visit Ozai, without the bars and the guards, at his prison in Caldera City._

_Forgiveness was what Iroh had given to Zuko, even when he himself had been in that horrible, dingy cell, and had turned his back against the bars. He had still LOVED Zuko then. He had still not held a shred of true anger in his heart. But he could not speak to the boy, when Zuko had so stubbornly made himself his enemy._

_Reconciliation was what Iroh had given to Zuko in his tent, in the White Lotus camp. Taking him back into his arms--crying with joy and thanksgiving! Because Zuko was no longer a danger to him, Iroh could welcome him back--not only back into his heart (where, of course, he had never left), but back into his physical presence._

_But Azula? With Azula... well, those metaphorical iron bars were the status quo. Just as they were with Ozai._

Iroh bit his lip for a moment, sadly, staring off into space. Then, slowly, his eyes softened, and his lips began to curve into a more hopeful smile. "...Perhaps your mother can do something for Azula, that you and I cannot!" he whispered, patting Zuko's arm.

To Iroh's surprise, Zuko winced at this. "...A-Azula thinks Mom's afraid of her. I... I think Fa--Ozai--must have told her Mom thought she was a monster. She kept repeating that on the beach, during the time when... you know..." he looked apologetically, almost pleadingly at Iroh--even now, the young Fire Lord hated having to talk about those few short months, after he had betrayed his uncle but before he had joined the Avatar.

"...And even before that--when we were kids--I think I remember Father bragging on Azula, once or twice, saying 'You'll scare your own mother!' when she shot at birds with fireballs, or stuff like that. ...Laughing about it, I mean. In his way."

Iroh's old face had been growing more and more aghast, at these revelations. " _Why_ did you never _tell_ me this before, Zuko?!" he finally hissed, his rumbly voice squeaking with horror.

"Ng." Chiko stirred on Iroh's chest, wriggling slightly. Both men held their breath, until she quieted again.

Zuko's golden eyes drifted guiltily out the window. "Because I hadn't remembered it very often, until now," he whispered.

Iroh steadied Chiko's sleeping form. Watching the child calmed him, in a way. "...Then that is just one more reason we need Ursa back more than ever. To tell Azula the truth, straight from her own mouth," he decided, keeping his voice down more carefully than ever.

Zuko nodded, still a bit sad. Iroh sensed he was worried about his mother again.

"Shhh..." the elder Firebender carded his hand through the younger's hair, just as he had those many years ago. "It's going to be all right." _And I'll be here for you, come what may._

***

By the time the great airship berthed in the forests of the northwestern Earth Kingdom, lunch had already come and gone. In fact, faint tinges of orange were already beginning to grace the sky.

Iroh and Capt. Karou shared the last of the vegetable buns amiably, as they shuffled down the gangplank steps. Lt. Yumi was already at the bottom, in this clearing just outside Winterjade Abbey. Chiko called brightly to her from the carriage-hatch.

"Yumi, Yumi! Come catch me!" She flapped her little pink kimono-sleeves, with a giant smile.

"Chiko!!" Zuko's arms swept around the little girl before she could jump off the side. "You are _not_ an Airbender!"

The length from the hatch to the ground, bypassing the short stairsteps, was probably not enough for _serious_ injury, now that the carriage-belly itself was on the ground... but still.

Zuko hugged his giggling little sister protectively to his chest, as he swished down the steps himself, in his lordly way. Suddenly he wondered how many panics like this his mother had endured, with him and Azula.

 _His mother..._ his eyes now traveled to the abbey walls. Zuko let Chiko down from his arms (whereupon she promptly ran over to Yumi, still giggling, and enjoying the feeling of the tall grass), and jogged up to Iroh.

"I can't believe we were actually here once before," the young Fire Lord let out another husky breath--something almost, but not quite, like regret in it. "She was right under our noses...."

"Let's not waste time worrying about the past," Iroh patted his adoptive son's back. "The destiny you found for yourself may never have been fulfilled, had you found your mother during our exile, Zuko. And besides, you would not have been able to talk to her then anyway. If what Sokka told us in the letter is correct, she was already asleep, those two years ago."

Zuko cracked a very soft smile. His guardian's wisdom was right, as usual. And besides that, for Iroh to have spoken of it as " _their_ exile," even though it had technically only been he, Zuko, who was banished....

He was stirred from these thoughts by Chiko's excited peeps, again. "Mr. Sokka!!"

Sokka and Suki were running across the field to meet them.

"Sokkaokkaokka!" Chiko laughed, launching herself at who--all things considered--was probably her favorite of "Big Ko's" friends from "Team Avatar."

The Water Tribesman returned her enthusiasm, grinning as he swung her around and then up into a hug. "Heeeeey, how's our little matchstick?"

Sokka had given this nickname to Iroh's daughter when he first had met her. It perfectly encapsulated both her element, which she shared with her family, and her non-bender status, which she shared with Sokka. She beamed to hear it, now.

"What? No hugs for me, love?" Suki chuckled patiently at their side, gesturing slightly with open arms.

Chiko hopped down from Sokka and hugged the Kyoshi Warrior's leg, almost in apology. "Hi Mi'Suki," she smiled sweetly up at her.

Zuko, meanwhile, had swept Sokka into a much fiercer bear-hug, before saying anything at all. After the two young men had pounded each other's backs for a moment (and Chiko had finally let go of Suki's green dress-hem), Zuko grabbed Suki into the embrace too.

" _Thank you_ both," he told his friends, one hand on each of their shoulders. From the way Zuko's golden eyes shone so deeply, the two young warriors understood what he meant.

The rest of Zuko's airship crew (a small one, for this personal rather than political journey) would remain behind on it, to guard the vessel from intruders, during their stay. Yumi and Karou, as the guards of the Fire Lord himself, followed him and his family to the abbey, where Abbess Meirong and her nuns awaited them.

A good number of the sisters had all lined up in a row outside the abbey's front gate, with Meirong at the center. She began a solemn bow as Zuko approached. The young Fire Lord held his hand out swiftly, to stop her.

"Please, Abbess. We are _your_ guests here, and honored to be so. This is not our land."

"Nevertheless, Lord Zuko, there are... many things, for which we have you to thank," Meirong answered humbly. _Both nationally and personally,_ the quiver in her tone seemed to hint.

"Well..." Zuko's own husky voice turned into a stammering whisper--a bit of the old, awkward prince showing through the lord. "Hopefully it's enough t... to make up for last time...." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around--remembering barging down this very gate, on the back of June's shirshu.

The tiniest hint of humor curled up, in the tiniest corner of the abbess' wrinkled mouth. _She would let that pass without comment._

"This is my uncle, Prince Iroh, the Dragon of the West," Zuko gestured, introducing the rest of his group ("You may remember me as well," Iroh put in, half-bowing and smiling just as sheepishly as Zuko had).

"And I'm Chiko!" their little tagalong peeked out and beamed proudly, from a pair of Iroh's robe-folds that she had pulled around herself.

"Shhhh, yes, dear," Iroh rubbed her downy head and chuckled, too fond to be embarrassed. "This is my daughter," he explained to Meirong.

"...Lt. Yumi, and Capt. Karou," Zuko finished. The two guards gave friendly nod-bows as well, Yumi still holding her spear (Karou armed naturally, with his Firebending instead).

"Of course," Abbess Meirong cut kindly to the heart of the matter; "you'll be wanting to see your mother." She was already gesturing inside the gate.

As much as his heart thudded with anticipation, Zuko held up his hand once more. "Just a moment. Which one of you is Sister Cuifen?"

Cuifen held her beads tightly again, as she stepped out of the line. "I-I am, your Majesty."

She was in a half-embrace before she knew what was happening. " _Thank you,_ " Zuko whispered into her shoulder, with all the same fervor he had to Sokka and Suki earlier.

The nun watched with amazement, as this magnanimous young Fire Lord and his well-mannered party--who apparently had once been their enemies--all filed wordlessly into Winterjade's courtyard. She was even more amazed when the chubbiest, most elderly one stopped and patted her hand, smiling like the sun in gratitude, on his way in.

***

Meirong, Cuifen, and two other nuns walked Sokka, Suki, and the five Fire Nationals down the same narrow hallway, that Cuifen had taken the two young warriors down before. Just before they got to Ursa's room, a noise broke out from a different one.

"UUGGH! You call that _soup?!_ Come back with something _edible,_ girl!"

A rather hurt-looking young nun stumbled backwards out of the door, holding a tray with a soup-bowl, a bit of its contents splotched on her habit. She managed a nod to her Mother Superior, then tiptoed hastily by the party. A surly-looking head peeked after her--tanned, middle-aged, rather long and thin, and with unkempt brown sideburns. He closed the door with a slam, right before the crowd got there.

"Who was _that?!_ " Yumi couldn't help but ask. She knew--as a representative of the Fire Nation abroad--it was important to refrain from even the slightest show of aggression, now. But she was as indignant for the young nun's sake, as she was for their party's.

"A patient," Meirong answer, rather regretfully. "As sisters of our order, we are sworn to aid the sick and needy--even the unpleasant ones--so long as they offer no true violence to us. Pay him no mind."

Karou glared at the door with measured, but righteous, anger as they passed it. The stocky, mustached guard almost looked like a stern parent, defending a child from a schoolyard bully.

Iroh stared at the door, too, as he held Chiko close and walked by. The little girl could tell her guardian was mulling over something, and perhaps not _just_ the man's meanness.

"What is it, Bapa?" she whispered with concern.

"Nothing..." the old Fire prince replied, absently. "I just... thought I may have seen a familiar face." He stroked his gray chin-lock as they continued down the hall.

Three doors later, they came to Ursa. Meirong opened the door as carefully as Cuifen had before.

Zuko was the first inside, followed by Iroh. Both royal Firebenders held bated breath.

"MOM!!"

The tension was half-released, all at once, as Zuko almost _flew_ to the bed. He lay on the woman's midriff, sobbing. Iroh trotted quickly after him, to touch Sister Shan's face. When he looked back up, tears were already finding the corners of his gentle smile. "This is our Ursa," he confirmed--whispering, nodding--to the onlookers.

Chiko had squirmed her way between his arms almost without him realizing it. She peered over Ursa's smooth, gentle features, and her brown locks parted so gracefully, to fall to either side. "This is Zuko's mommy?" she whispered, even higher and softer than her guardian had before.

"Yes, sweetheart," Iroh laid his hand on her little head. "This is Zuko's mommy."

Chiko's eyes were shining bright, like she had just seen a guardian-spirit. "She's _beautiful,_ " her smile broadened, in innocent wonder.

Zuko finally lifted his own head up, smiling gently as well. There were rivers down his cheeks. "I'm here, Mom," he held one of Ursa's hands very tightly in his own. He leaned in, gripping her whole arm, and propped it up against his holding hand, stroking it with the other. "We're going to make you better." Every semblance of strong, composed monarch-hood was gone. This was a little boy, talking to his mother. He didn't care who overheard, in this moment.

And the others understood. Sokka was wiping at a tear as well.

Suki smiled fondly at him. _She was proud to have a boyfriend who wasn't afraid to cry._

"We'll... we'll be going up the mountain to get the feather, to cure your mother, Zuko," the Kyoshi Warrior finally put in, gently. "Do you want to come with us, or stay here and watch over her?"

Zuko's golden eyes never left Ursa--completely enrapt, just to be seeing this _breathing_ face again, that he had only touched in portraits for the past eleven years. "I'll--I'll come with you," he agreed. "Da--Uncle and Chiko, can watch her for me...." He had half-slipped, in his haze--while Iroh was certainly "Dad" to him around family and friends, now, Zuko and Iroh both had agreed it was still best to use the legal term "Uncle" when around onlookers, like these nuns. _No sense in confusing outsiders about Zuko's parentage, essential to his hold on the throne, in these early years._

"You can of course do as you wish, Lord Zuko," Meirong told him respectfully, "but the cicada-phoenixes are said to be more active in the daytime... and it is growing rather late. We have rooms prepared for you for the night, regardless... and you are welcome to sup with us. I am sure you are all very tired."

"Yes--" Zuko was still clinging to his mother, his voice seeming only half-there. "Yes, I... think that's probably best."

Despite still wiping at his tears, Iroh was instantly in a jolly mood at the mention of supper. "Why, that is most gracious of you, Mother Abbess!" he bustled over and beamed, taking the opportunity to speak both for himself and the preoccupied Fire Lord.

Cuifen had been hovering at the scene the whole time, wiping some tears of her own as well. _Her friend had spoken truly, about the family she loved. They WERE different from the cruel Ozai...._

She finally found the strength to speak, half-laughing at this bubbly old noble who seemed to put everyone at ease. "I do hope it will be to your liking, Sir," Cuifen almost apologized, to Ursa's well-fed brother-in-law. "I am afraid our fare is very simple and frugal, compared to what you must be used to...."

"Oh, I'm sure Uncle and I have had much worse," Zuko finally answered them with a chuckle of his own. He turned to look at Cuifen, though his feet still remained at Ursa's bedside. He smiled openly, the humility of experience on his face. "After trying to make salad out of half-rotten radish-turnip leaves in the back of a cave, almost anything tastes good."

Iroh chuckled warmly too. _Come on, Son._ His amber eyes said what his mouth could not, as he turned to the door.

Zuko stood up fully, now, and began to follow, but found his hand was still entwined with his mother's. He lifted it to his lips, in a fervent kiss. "I love you, Mom." He pressed her fingers to his cheek--the tears were coming back, now, even from his scarred eye.

Zuko made himself let go, and was almost to the door with Iroh, when he suddenly just _had_ to dart back, and squeeze Ursa's hand one more time. "I love you so, so much!" his husky voice was suddenly so tiny--so happy--so sad--so worried.

Iroh smiled with that same mixture of emotions, cupping his arms around Zuko's elbows and helping him leave.

The old Fire prince also noticed his other child's face, as they exited. _Chiko was positively enchanted_ \--she wouldn't stop smiling and staring at Ursa, even as Iroh tugged her gently along. He wondered what this might mean.

***

Another pair of eyes also watched the scene, as the little party all filed away from Ursa's room. The nuns' most unpleasant patient had opened his door again, and was squinting--pondering.

_His name was Bingwen, and he was a minor legend amongst the bandits of the region. Not only because he was handy with dual-wielding--a swordcraft that did take a certain amount of skill--but because he told a tall tale, about the infamous Blue Spirit stealing his best pair. Some believed his story, about nearly besting the strange figure in an alley--and then being unfairly knocked out with his spirit-mist, and waking up to find his interlocking broadswords gone. Others thought Bingwen had made the whole story up, and just liked the attention._

_Either way, of late, he had fallen in with a gang that patrolled the highways of Zhong's kingdom. Bingwen cursed at the bandages on his leg--the calf-wound he had sustained in a scuffle, about a month prior, had festered. He and some other members of their gang had tried to treat it with their rough remedies of dirt, spit, and berries, but it had only become more infected. When Bingwen had become too weak and feverish to walk straight, he was of no more use to the bandit gang. They had told him to seek the help of professional healers, and to catch up with them later._

_Well, he had waited long enough. The nuns' medicines had worked wonders. They had told him this morning he needed at least a half-week more of bed rest and salves, to ensure the infection was completely subdued, but Bingwen scoffed. He had been planning to march out sometime later tonight--and that rancid soup had almost convinced him. But now... these newcomers may have brought him a golden opportunity._

_He had heard enough of their chatter in the hallway, to make out the words "Fire Lord" and "mother" more than once. That tall one with the crown--surely that had to be him. And his mother...?_

Bingwen watched as the last two figures, the Fire guards, shut the door three rooms away from his own. The big burly one with the mustache sat down in front of it. His companion, the lean spear-woman with the hairbuns, was laughing and promising to bring him dinner. She left, and he stayed in place.

Bingwen scratched his scraggly chin, thinking hard.


	3. Chapter 3

"They look almost too cute to wake up."

"She's a heavy sleeper for that age--our old dragon couldn't have found a better child to match him!"

"You'd almost think she wasn't adopted."

"I wonder if he was always that dozy, at her age too."

"Well, we just know for sure he has been since WE'VE been born! Remember old Lord Azulon banishing one of his courtiers for calling his son 'Fine Prince Sleepyhead?'"

"I'm surprised _that's_ in your memory, Yumi! You would've been a little younger than me, after all. ...And word on the street was Iroh cried. He thought it was too harsh."

"Yes, bless him. But maybe we should still come back later."

"Ahhhh, no now--just think how much his Highness would hate to miss his breakfast!"

"About as much as he'd hate to miss his nap."

"...Tea with breakfast?"

"Okay, you've got a point... oh wait, they're stirring anyway. I guess we were too loud."

Chiko let out a cherubic yawn, followed by Iroh's much deeper but somehow equally-cute one. The old prince and the little princess blinked blearily up at the guards. These abbey quarters were small, and Chiko had promptly gone to sleep last night curled up on Iroh's tummy.

"You've slept half the morning, Sir Iroh... sorry, we didn't know if you wanted us to get you up or not," Yumi whispered apologetically, folding her slender hands. The light from the blinds nearby highlighted some dust motes, and shined almost golden on her cheeks.

"Ah-heh..." Iroh rubbed at one eye, his docile, groggy smile reassuring her. His rumbly voice was a bit bemused, and still quite sleepy. "We must have gotten a touch of blimp-lag... (yaaawn...) or whatever it is they're calling it." _Gaining and losing hours was a new phenomenon, with the arrival of airships--now that it was possible for people to travel faster than the sun, across the four lands. If the Air Nomads had had a similar term for flying that fast on sky-bison, well, it had sadly been lost to recent memory._

"We brought you some porridge," Karou grinned, producing a large wooden bowl and a somewhat smaller one from behind his back, almost as if performing a magic trick. After placing them in front of the old noble and the little girl, he pulled out a small red bottle from his pockets, shaking it enticingly. His grin nearly split his mustache, now, the twinkles in his eyes becoming ever-so-slightly sly. "I didn't leave the airship without this. A little drizzle of hot sauce'll make even plain Earth Kingdom food taste a bit more like home!"

"Mmmm... I think it tastes rather like home as it is, Captain Karou," Iroh dug his spoon in appreciatively, forgoing the offered bottle. "Lest you forget, I _do_ live in the Earthtown quarter now, in our own Caldera!"

Chiko was starting in on her own portion of the nuns' plain food, as her guardian expounded behind her back, "I always had a bit of a fascination with Earth Kingdom cookery, even in those regrettable days when we were seeking to conquer the place... their spices are really just as varied as ours, you know, but more subtle...." The little princess let half of one mushy spoonful drop back into the bowl, as Iroh's sage voice droned on. "Just like a good mellowed tea, many mild ingredients can combine, to create something rich and comforting..." Iroh blew upon his porridge. Chiko sucked some hesitantly off of her wooden spoon, following his lead.

The little princess smiled, then--there wasn't really much taste to this mixture, which the locals called "jook." But it was very warm and soft--a _good_ feeling, just like her guardian's hand rubbing the back of her head lovingly. It was almost like having that same feeling inside.

Karou still insisted on drizzling a large spiral of red in his own bowl, and Yumi hesitantly reached for the bottle, too--but they all broke their fast together companionably. (Of course Iroh brewed some quick cups of pebbleflower for them all to share as well, to wash the porridge down--a plain and comforting Earth Kingdom tea, for a plain and comforting Earth Kingdom dish.)

It was then Chiko noticed the two sheets of paper left on the nightstand, weighted down with Zuko's crown-hairpiece. "Bapa!" she tugged Iroh's sleeve urgently, pointing; "lookit."

Iroh took the first note in hand, setting aside its golden "paperweight" reverently. This one, obviously, was from Zuko. Even without the crown, the old Fire prince would recognize his boy's handwriting anywhere--its short, purposeful swashes.

_Gone to get feathers for the cure,_ it read, simply. _Take care of Mom._

Iroh smiled softly, pocketing this note close to his heart. Yumi, meanwhile, was inspecting the second one. Her free hand now clamped itself frantically to her mouth, trying not to laugh. Karou peered over her shoulder, and immediately did the same. "It's--it's another drawing from the Water Tribe boy, Sir," the guardswoman explained, fighting valiantly for control of her voice.

She and her partner held baited breath as they passed the sheet to Iroh, wondering how he would react. Rather like the situation with the wake-up call, they _knew_ how kind and good-natured the old noble was--and yet, they had been taught from infancy never to offend royalty. And so, a note of apologetic propriety would still sometimes creep into their manner.

They needn't have worried. Iroh's belly-laugh exploded enough for all three of them, tossing his silver head back in delight.

"Lemme see, lemme see!" Chiko was already giggling in anticipation, batting her tiny arms over Iroh's and reaching for the sheet. He obliged patiently, passing the drawing to her.

The tiny girl's eyes lit up. On it was Sokka's impression of her and Iroh exactly as he had found them that morning--he, Zuko, and probably Suki had slipped into the room, and hadn't had the heart to wake them up. It was a comical but sweet little sketch--the figures' round faces had huge smiles, beneath their tight-shut eyes. Several trails of the symbol for "snore" floated above their heads.

And Iroh was absolutely HUGE--if Sokka had given him a large tummy the summer before, when Iroh had lost a bit of weight in real life, now he seemed to have added on just as much _again_ in the drawing, as Iroh had gained back his normal hefty size in reality. The old prince's roughly-drawn figure frankly looked like a spread-out floor-carpet, with Chiko's little form fitting easily inside. ...Sokka had even drawn a flower in her hand, as an extra treat.

Said little princess was a mess of giggles--pure ones, of admiration. "Oh it's so _cute!!_ " she shrieked, hugging the parchment to her chest.

_Well, they knew what would be getting framed on the wall of Chiko's little room in the teashop, whenever they got back home._

***

Abbess Meirong handed Zuko his pack at the edge of the abbey gate, as the young lord finished drawing up his hair. It was in a plain topknot today, tied only with a maroon ribbon--and his traveling robe, hanging open a bit at the chest, matched it in functionality. There was no sense in wearing his royal finery for a private hike up a mountain. Suki was now probably the most dressed-up of their group--she still never went anywhere (on duty) without her Kyoshi makeup, as a point of honor.

"Pardon me for asking, your Majesty," Meirong cocked a wrinkled eyebrow, "but are your bodyguards not accompanying you?"

"I told them to stay with my family," Zuko smiled, through his usual soft, gritty voice. "Sokka and Suki will be my guards for the day--they're more than competent."

Sokka grinned broadly at the nun, flexing his biceps at Zuko's praise. Suki rolled her eyes affectionately, and gave him a light punch in the shoulder.

"Now remember," Meirong instructed them, "you must catch a cicada-phoenix alive, and stroke it gently for any loose feathers. A dead cicada-phoenix will turn immediately to dust."

"Oh..." Sokka sounded crestfallen; "so no boomerang?" He was reaching almost reflexively for the weapon on his back.

" _No boomerang,_ " the abbess confirmed, her eyes narrowing as if admonishing a naughty child.

"That's interesting," Zuko rubbed his chin; "so they are like our own phoenixes, turning to ash and fire?"

"Yes," Meirong nodded--"just as true Fire phoenixes dissolve into ashes upon death, so do cicada-phoenixes return to the element of Earth. The same goes for their dead feathers that drop off naturally, unfortunately." She sighed, in a way regretful. "That is why the healing feathers are so rare, you see. Otherwise a score of hunters would be combing the mountains for their bodies every seventh winter, when their life-cycles end. ...As it is, we try to send a mercenary up our nearest mountain every seventh summer, to retrieve just a few quills."

"We'll get them for you, Mother Superior, I promise," Zuko smiled gently. "Free of charge. Enough to save my mother AND at least a few more patients who come to your door."

Meirong cracked a smile in return, more warm than dry this time. "Thank you, Lord Zuko. If you come back with even two full feathers, we will be deeply grateful."

Suki smiled too, shouldering her pack. "Come on," she called chipperly to the others--"I'll race you to the mountain-base!"

"But Suki, it's gonna be a hard hike up there! We should pace ourselves!" Sokka protested.

"Oh, _come_ now, surely you big, strong boys aren't afraid of a little competition?" the Kyoshi Warrior teased, already taking off in a jog.

"Suki, _please--_ " Zuko groaned. Sokka had immediately followed her, with a faint little "grrrrr." _Sometimes the young Fire Lord wondered if he was the only grown-up person in all of Team Avatar._

***

Zuko may have wondered the same thing had he been back home in the Caldera. The sun was finally rising gloriously on the Fire Nation capital, a few hours behind the abbey of Winterjade.

And Avatar Aang was an early riser, as was, thankfully, Councilwoman Den-Cho.

The young monk perched happily near her desk, cross-legged on the floor with Momo. "You need any help?" he chirped. (Momo chirped too.)

Den-Cho chuckled at them. "Not right know, young Avatar. There _is_ a matter involving a minor dispute with some Water Tribe traders, which I'd like your opinion on after lunch." Her hairpiece jangled like a bell as she stacked some papers, and smiled at her little friend. "But for now, all I'm dealing with are a few renovations and city ordinances. Why don't you just go play and enjoy yourself!"

Aang needed no further prompting. He turned an acrobatic somersault onto his feet. "Okee-dokee!" He whipped up his little round "air-scooter" again, riding the bluish ball into the long hall nearby. Momo grabbed onto Aang's shoulder, saving his tiny lemur-wings the trouble of flapping to keep up.

Lt. Jee watched them both, remembering a time when he was on that old ship, chasing the young Avatar by Zuko's command. _He wondered just which boy had been the most trouble._

"Race you, Lt. Jee!!"

Jee didn't move from where he leaned against the wall, but Aang's innocent cheer coaxed a faint smile from his face.

_At least those days were all over now. Peace DID give the soul time to rest. More rest than any of them had ever known before._

To a point. The gray-haired lieutenant panicked as he saw where the little monk was headed.

_Fifteen years ago, Jee was serving under General Iroh, on the dangerous foreign battlefield. Two years ago, he was down on his luck and assigned to the two disgraced Fire princes, on a ramshackle ship in a frozen sea. Now, he had become a comfortable royal guard, in a kind and joyous new era dawning. ...And also, incidentally, was somehow stuck babysitting his own Avatar._

"Aang!" Jee cupped one hand to his mouth, to magnify his voice. " _Watch out for that urn!!_ "

CRASH!!!!

*Tinkle, tinkle.*

"Whoops."

Lt. Jee sighed, holding his forehead.

_...So far, he had led a very interesting life._

***

In Ursa's room, Iroh and Chiko kept a bedside vigil on two stools. Iroh's stumpy feet barely touched the floor, the pointed ends of his slippers dusting back and forth. Chiko's tiny feet didn't touch the floor at all.

They watched her there, in warm and thoughtful silence.

"...What will I call Zuko's mommy, Bapa?" Chiko suddenly peeped.

"Why... whatever you wish, little one," Iroh almost chuckled in surprise, wondering why that matter hadn't occurred to any of them sooner. "Auntie Ursa? Does that sound about right?"

The little princess' smile broadened, the enchanted look from yesterday coming back into her eyes. "Auntie Ursa," she nodded, whispering, as if this made it real.

Iroh slowly petted her head again, his own amber eyes melting. _The last time someone had called Ursa "Auntie," it had been... it had been Lu-Ten._ The old Fire prince's tears threatened to prickle, half happy, half sad.

"When did you first meet her?" Chiko wanted to know then--leaning into Iroh's chubby side, but never taking her eyes off Ursa's face.

Iroh's sentimental smile disappeared for a moment, weighing his words. "...At my brother's wedding," he finally admitted, hoping not to upset his little girl. "It was... an arranged marriage, you understand. Not--not a _happy_ day for Auntie Ursa."

Chiko's smile fell too, as she finally looked back up at her guardian. As small and innocent as she was, Iroh and Zuko had both told her enough about Ozai that she understood, to a limited degree, why this was sad. "Tell me about a happier memory of Auntie Ursa, Bapa," Chiko requested--her little face pleading, almost pained. As if a nicer story would chase away the sudden cold--would make everything feel warm and safe again.

Iroh beamed sweetly at her. _Thankfully, as bad as many memories were, the good ones were also not in short supply._ "All right..." his rumbly voice began; "I remember Zuko's first summer solstice festival! Auntie Ursa had invited me and Lu-Ten to accompany her on the promenade. Lu-Ten was a little boy of ten at the time, and he bought Zuko a paper dragon with his own money--made a little puppet-show of it over the baby's face, telling him how it would fly him all the way up to the stars." Little shines of fondness twinkled bravely in Iroh's eyes--knowing his boy's soul was as alive as ever, waiting patiently for them. And maybe sometimes sailing through those very stars, once upon a year or so, just for fun.

Chiko leaned closer, clutching at Iroh's silks, her little eyes shining and smiling too. Then Iroh turned to the main subject of their talk--Ursa. "You should have seen the way Zuko giggled in his mother's arms, Ursa holding his tiny hands up, waving them like dragon-wings. And then she complimented me on my singing!" he laughed and almost preened. "I sang us all a tune everyone in Capital City knew, about the solstice sun shining on the Fire Lord's gates. ...And then she sang us all a tune we'd never heard before, one she knew from growing up on Roku's island."

Iroh's eyes were misty now--his love for Ursa was purely platonic, but he was a demonstrative sort, who would hold hands and kiss cheeks with anyone he felt close to, friends and family. He reached for his sister-in-law's palm, slipping it between both of his own. Suddenly he found he was addressing Ursa just as much as he was addressing Chiko. "...And the way you laughed in surprise, when the court performers made a fire-lily out of sparklers in a row... oh Ursa, do you remember it?" The old prince's voice cracked, his mixed tears of happiness and sadness wetting the corners of his beard, now. "...Did you ever see the lights of Caldera City in your mind, when the fireflies came to glow at the gates of your convent here?"

"...I am sure she did," a gentle voice suddenly joined them, very timidly, from the doorframe. Cuifen had appeared, with the nectar-pitcher. "I'm sorry," she whispered, "but it's time for her drink...."

Iroh sat up and gestured to the nun, twice as gentle again as her manner. " _Please,_ Sister, do not apologize--we are _your_ guests here," he repeated the same thing Zuko had, his forehead-wrinkles deepening. "And what you must think of me, sitting here reminiscing with your friend, about a time when our people still tormented yours... and when I myself--" the ex-general's voice began to choke.

Cuifen cut him off mercifully. "I may have thought that, fifteen years ago," she began to smile herself, now, taking a seat opposite the old Fire noble and his daughter, on the other side of Ursa's bed. "...But not now. Not after knowing Sister Shan. --She apologized to me herself one night, when we were all alone, and no one was sure to overhear..." Cuifen suddenly found herself crying too; "she was _sobbing,_ begging my forgiveness for her ever supporting the war...."

Iroh's wrinkles suddenly seemed a great deal shallower--one could almost see the unspoken weight slipping from his features, as he smiled despite the pain. "--I am very glad to hear that," he finally managed, his voice somehow both a rumble and a peep. "I have learned to compartmentalize my memories, you see... and I am sure Ursa, too, had t--"

"She spoke mostly of her children after that," Cuifen nodded--her smile growing more forgiving, more reassuring. But then it pained a bit, as she leaned closer, smoothing Ursa's hair out of her forehead. "I am happy she is going home to them... but I shall miss her..." the nun's voice was the one peeping, now.

Iroh smiled perceptively. "...You care for her very much, don't you?" His amber eyes were warm and open, welcoming. _Not a threat. Not a trap._

Cuifen grasped Ursa's other hand, just as Iroh had done earlier. "She is the best friend I've ever had." A little tear found its way out of her brown eyes; then she almost laughed, helplessly. "Even coming in here to feed her every day... I have often felt as if she keeps all my secrets... I really don't know what I'll do with myself, after our routine is over!..."

"You're coming to feed Auntie?" Chiko squeaked, from the furthest stool. In the midst of their heartfelt conversation, the old Firebender and the Earth nun had almost forgotten about the little girl. She had been watching them solemnly, her face screwed up in concentration--she understood many of their words, though not quite all. "--Can I help?" she smiled afresh--almost purposefully lifting the mood.

Given her guardian's perceptiveness, and their shared desire to spread cheer, perhaps it _was_ even intentional. Iroh smiled proudly, at the third member of his brood.

Cuifen smiled at the little girl too. "Of course you can. Come here and hold this pitcher with me--like so."

The nun really did the steady pouring herself--years of experience teaching her how to balance the nectar-stream, so that Ursa would not choke. But she let Chiko clasp the bottom of the jug with her pudgy little fingers, thinking the job was hers.

Iroh reached behind the cushions as he watched, supporting Ursa's head very tenderly.

***

The hike up the mountain was almost like a watercolor painting--the hills stretching to the sky like columns, the clouds parting gently above them in swirls. Pine trees rustled in the summer air. It was almost too tranquil for their errand. --Or perhaps very fitting indeed, for creatures with healing properties to live in such a place.

No signs of them yet, though.

Suki hummed a tune to fill the silence, and it soon developed into a song.

"Pick me a cherry that grows in bamboo--  
Oh then, my brave lover, I might marry you.  
Catch me a fish from the Milky Way sea--  
Oh then, my brave lover, you might marry me..."

The Kyoshi Warrior danced, nearly floating, to the rhyme she had known since childhood, on her island. Her green robes, heavy as they looked, didn't seem to hinder her at all, as she leapt over twigs and rocks, further up the mountainside.

Sokka's ponytail bounced as he followed her, jogging. He stopped for a moment and sighed, letting Zuko (who was more sedate in his pace) catch up. The Water Tribe boy's face showed pure, smitten admiration, as he remarked over his shoulder, "I tell you, Zuko. Earth Kingdom girls can sometimes be a handful, but they're a joy!"

"Oh, I know," the young Fire Lord chirped almost offhandedly. His smile broadened to match the Water Tribesman's, as he thought of two messy brown braids, and a green robe much softer and more casual than Suki's, and a teasing laugh that made him melt. "I'm dating one too."

Zuko almost got lost in his daydream of Jin, when something new rustled, flashing past the corner of his good eye. It was a beautiful pale green--almost white, like the finest jade or silk. And it was almost all bird, except for its clearly insectoid eyes--segmented and deep green, like cut emeralds. As was its thrumming song--"zzzzzztttt-uuuuu, zzzzzzztttt-uuuuu"--like the buzz of a bug, but with the lilt of a bird somehow curving up the end of every note.

The Firebender gasped, grabbing his friend's shoulder. "Sokka! LOOK!"

The creature had already flown back into the forest, but the boys took off after it. That _had_ to be a cicada-phoenix!

***

"Fffffhhhooo."

"Fffffhhhoooo."

Iroh and Chiko blew on their cute teacups together--this was from Chiko's favorite set, its teapot made to look like an elephant-pig with a big curved snout. They were sharing some mid-morning berry extract, still keeping their vigil beside Ursa, while Cuifen had gone out on an errand.

"Can't we make some for Auntie Ursa too, Bapa?" Chiko almost pleaded, reaching for one of the extra cups on the teatray, for the third time now. "Miss Cuifen showed us she could drink--I want her to have berry tea too..." her amber eyes were big and nearly teary.

Iroh shook his head, patiently and kindly. "I would be afraid to, little one. Besides--" his old smile grew even gentler and sweeter; "don't you think she will enjoy it more when she is awake?"

Chiko nodded slowly in agreement, laying her head on her guardian's belly to rest. Iroh rubbed her downy hair. Then he frowned slightly, as he noticed that same look coming back into the little princess' eyes. The way she smiled so fixedly at Ursa, as if seeing something outright magical.

"Chiko..." Iroh lifted his tiny daughter's chin up to face him, hoping his fears were unfounded; "you do realize that when she wakes up... Auntie Ursa is not going to be the same woman as your mother, don't you?"

For a moment, both pairs of amber eyes, the young and the old, were soft and sad. "...I know," Chiko said finally. She shook her little head slowly, but did so never breaking her gaze with her guardian. "And I wouldn't _want_ a replacement for Mommy. Mommy is with Lu-Ten... and if we found another Mommy and Lu-Ten here, we'd just have duplicates of them when we got to Heaven! We wouldn't want that, would we, Bapa?"

Iroh chuckled warmly through the tears. "No," he shook his own head in agreement with his little girl now, "no, we wouldn't! Extras won't do."

Just as quickly, Chiko's smile fell again. "--But she _will_ like me, won't she, Bapa?" She looked over at Ursa again, almost worried.

Iroh had had so many occasions to cry that morning, he barely knew what to do with himself. "Of _course_ she will, sweetheart!" he gathered the child immediately into his arms. "Why _wouldn't_ she?" His voice was a slow rumble, calming and loving.

Chiko smiled again, nestling into her father's beard. "I want Big Ko to have his mommy back," she whispered, "and I want an auntie too! It will be nice, to have an auntie...."

Iroh petted her, even as his hug tightened. "Bless you, little one," his whisper was as gravelly as Chiko's was clear, but somehow just as soft. "Bless your sweet soul!"

They sat there rocking, for a while, in the morning sun filtering through the small window. Then, finally, Iroh relaxed his arms.

"...I think I am going to go out and stretch my legs for a bit, Chiko. Would you like to come with me, to the courtyard?"

The little princess shook her head shyly, smiling over at her pack of toys. "I wanna stay with Auntie Ursa. She needs to meet Rei now!"

Iroh chuckled fondly again, ruffling her topknot. "All right, you and Auntie Ursa play with your dollie. Just promise you stay here, with Yumi at the door."

Chiko nodded, already scooting across the floor to get her handkerchief-doll. Iroh was always very careful never to leave his smallest child unwatched--and thankfully, she was an obedient sort.

***

Yumi and Karou both waved reassuringly at Iroh, as the old Fire prince exited the room. He returned the gesture appreciatively, shuffling down the hall.

Unfortunately, he was not the only one taking note of the two guards at Ursa's door.

Bingwen peered over at them from his own doorframe, for what had to be the sixth or seventh time. _One of them was always there, standing vigil near the Fire-woman._ He cursed under his breath.

_It was such a perfect setup. The Fire Lord's own mother, helpless and completely unconscious, just a few rooms away from him! If he could kidnap her, and take her back to his old gang... they would be singing his praises as a legend for years to come. No other bandit in the winding rurals of the Earth Kingdom could even DREAM of such a ransom!_

He stuck a grubby hand on one hip, snorting as he retreated to his own healing-room. _He could probably take the wiry woman-guard or the goateed soldier-dumpling in a fight individually. But he didn't particularly relish the thought of facing them both together. Most of all, though, he realized he wasn't up for the struggle the resulting noise would cause. They'd raise the whole abbey before he got ten paces. ...It wasn't as if nuns were a real THREAT, but a swarm of them would be like wading through pudding--he would never be able to actually get away, let alone with his captive._

Bingwen flung himself grumpily on his bed, chewing on the wooden fork from his lunch-tray. He looked up at the ceiling, and then at the wall, moodily, absently. ...And then it hit him.

_Windows._

The ruffian sat up slowly, almost chuckling with delight. _This really WAS his lucky day. A conscious captive, however weak or small, would still squirm and make noise, hampering the escape. But a captive in a coma... why, he could carry her over his back in and out of a window, and even have time to spare. So long as he was quiet, those standing outside the closed door would be clueless!_

The Fire Lord was gone with his friends, from what he'd overheard--and now the fat uncle had popped out for a stroll--so surely the room was deserted, save the sleeping Fire-woman.

Bingwen opened his own window, and stuck his scraggly head out, to judge the distance. There was nothing but trees and grass out here, at the back of the abbey wall--trees and grass and other rooms' back-windows, just like his. _It WAS three, wasn't it? Three doors down...._

***

Zuko stared at the mess of large, springy sticks on the ground. Sokka was finishing up tying one corner with twine from his pack.

"You're _sure_ this will work...?" the Fire Lord cocked his scarred eyebrow. (Somehow, the gesture coming through that side made it emphatic indeed.)

" _Ab_ so _lutely!_ " his Water Tribe friend answered, with all the sing-song confidence in the world. "You're looking at the best trapper in all the South Pole!" He gave the ramshackle contraption an experimental pat, pleased with how tautly the strings twanged.

"...I thought it was 'the best HUNTER in all the South Pole.'" Zuko remained dubious.

"Trapping _is_ a part of hunting!" Sokka straightened up matter-of-factly--his voice rather surprised, but patient. As if he were explaining the finer details of a hobby to an inexperienced child. "Now, we'll need some bait...."

Zuko tucked a graceful finger to his chin--not sure whether to laugh, or to place more faith in Sokka's schemes. _He WAS desperate for a feather to save his mother, after all... and he wondered how Suki was faring. She was mulling through some bushes, at just the edge of their field of vision._ "What do they eat?"

Sokka's blue eyes went a bit rounder, betraying his own lack of preparation. "Uh, I dunno--flower nectar? Bugs?"

"I thought cicada-phoenixes WERE bugs!" Zuko flung his arms wide in exasperation. _Half-bugs, anyway...._

"DIFFERENT bugs!" Sokka mirrored his Fire Nation friend's gesture, as exasperated as he. _No WONDER prissy little royals like him never survived in the wild...._

Zuko sighed, pinching his forehead. Then opened his golden eyes again, rather guilelessly. "--Okay," he shrugged, deciding to trust Sokka's instincts. "Guess we'll just have to get one of both...."

***

The plump young sister who had shown Suki the perfumes earlier that month had found a new customer for her wares. She had stopped stirring a vat at the edge of the courtyard, to guide this fuzzy old noble through several stacks of bottles instead.

" _Mmmmm..._ " Iroh rumbled appreciatively--enjoying treating his nose nearly as much as he enjoyed treating his stomach. " _Damson_ blossom! May I have a tiny sample?" He clasped his big hands, with a hopeful eyelash-flutter and a smile.

The young nun giggled, her own gray eyes matching his twinkle for twinkle. _What a cute old Fire Nation grandpa. He gets as excited about flowers as our female buyers usually do!_ She uncorked this particular bottle and tapped the wet end of its stopper on his wrist, smiling at how daintily he curled it.

Iroh brought his hand back to his broad nose for an even deeper sniff, and nearly fluttered off of his feet. "Oh! _Oh,_ that's lovely! I'll be taking a bottle of _this_ home for sure. How much for one?"

"Two silver grits for the standard size," the sister smiled, getting the coin-box ready.

Iroh had prepared for the trip, and had several of the Earth Kingdom coins in his pockets. He slipped four to the young nun, and selected a medium purple bottle from the tray.

"But... that's twice the amount, Sir," she seemed confused. "You only need to give me two...."

_Iroh winced, remembering helping himself to a stray bottle at this abbey, when Zuko and June were chasing Aang and wrecking havoc with the shirshu._ "It's... it's a back-payment," the old noble mumbled sheepishly, shuffling off without another word.

The chubby young nun (who had not been a party to the incident) blinked innocently, wondering what on Earth (or Fire) he meant.

***

Zuko was sniffing flowers for a completely different reason at the moment. He cradled a large clump of rhododendron blooms to his chest, almost timidly--as if he was picking them for his mother directly, instead of for her cure. "These... these are the biggest ones I could find. Do you have a bug?" he turned to Sokka, as they both approached the trap again.

"Yep!" Sokka grinned proudly, revealing a dead insect in his palm. "I found this caterbeetle in a log."

Zuko wrinkled his nose distastefully at it at first. But, remembering their errand, he nodded, placing the flowers and the caterbeetle both under the mess of twigs. Sokka pulled a small branch from a tree meanwhile, bracing against it with his fur-booted foot. *SNAP!*

The Water Tribesman began stripping the branch of leaves, letting the greenery fall on top of the trap, to disguise it. Zuko squatted beside it, watching.

And then they both saw what Suki was doing.

The Kyoshi Warrior emerged from the rustling rhododendron bushes, beaming innocently. Perched on her arm was a jade-white bird with emerald eyes.

The boys' jaws dropped.

"Suki--"

"Suki!!"

"What--"

"How--!"

She giggled softly, but couldn't risk answering them quite yet, for fear of spooking her visitor. "Shhh... cooooo..." Suki whispered soft noises to the cicada-phoenix, brushing its back with her gloved hand.

"Zzzz-kreeeee..." it buzz-warbled in return. Though its segmented eyes were impossible to read, something in the crane of its neck seemed peaceful, trusting.

Zuko and Sokka would both remember the sight, for as long as they lived.

"Thank you," the Kyoshi Warrior told the insect-bird reverently, as she spread her arm for it to hop back into the bush. But the creature took off into the air instead, twirling high above them. All three young adults watched it with wonder, as it disappeared over the treetops.

Then Suki opened her other hand, to reveal three long, full, greenish-white feathers.

Zuko ran up to her, his own arms open. Just this once, he figured Sokka (and Jin, for that matter) would forgive him for kissing his girlfriend. "Suki--thank _you!_ " he cried in his gritty voice, and smooched her on the cheek.

The reason for their trek was such a solemn one, that the three friends almost didn't laugh, when Zuko's lips came back chalk-white from Suki's makeup.

Almost.

***

Chiko scooted closer to Ursa's sleeping face, on top of her bedcovers. "This is Rei," she whispered, cradling the doll to her chest, as if it was her baby. "Mommy taught me how to make dolls, and Bapa gave me his handkerchief. So Rei is from both of them. Do you like her, Auntie Ursa? She likes you!" She smiled and pressed the doll's little round head to Ursa's cheek, to "kiss" her.

Then she heard the scratching at the window. The little girl's own head shot up, alarmed.

_Bingwen was more used to being a violent highway bandit than a silent house-thief. He hadn't thought about the obvious fact that the windows would be locked from the inside, their wooden shutters fixed tight. Frustrated, he punched through the slats, finally managing to break one open._

Bingwen snaked one skinny arm through the fractured latticework, pulling the rest of the shutter out of the way and sticking his ragged face in. He tumbled halfway into the room, one leg over the opening, before he heard the scream, and saw the tiny figure.

"Aaaaahhhhh!!! Who are you?!!"

_BLAST!! A dollhouse-sized sentry?! Bingwen hadn't bothered to notice if Lord Zuko's party had any children in it. He hadn't bargained on this._

"SHHH!!!" he hissed angrily, hoping his vicious scowl would cow the girl. _It wasn't ideal, but there was no going back now._ He grabbed the sleeping woman roughly, preparing to drape her over his shoulder and somehow get back through the window with her.

Chiko was having none of it.

She stood up on her stool, her little chest swelling. _She was the child of a DRAGON!_ "You let my Auntie Ursa GO!!" she bellowed the best her squeaky voice could manage, suddenly looking around the room for anything she could throw.

_Bag? No, too soft. Candle-holder? No, too small._

Her eyes darted to the simple, near-bare table, where Cuifen always kept Ursa's tonic.

_Pitcher._

The last thing Bingwen saw--before the explosion of stars--was a very angry seven-year-old face a few paces away from him, and the round porcelain bottom of a jug, hurtling _much_ closer.

CCCCCCRRRRRRRAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHH!!!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! YUMI, YUUUUUUUUUUMIIIIII!! CAPTAIN KAROOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU!!"

The sound of the breaking pottery, and Chiko's screaming, was certainly enough to alert the guards outside. They had been pacing up and down the hall to stretch their own legs a bit, but never far enough that Ursa's door was out of their line of vision. Now they both barreled towards it, Karou getting there first and swinging it open. "Chiko!!"

The burly guard's face changed from concern to indignation as he saw the ruffian's half-conscious form slumped over the even-less-conscious Ursa. Karou darted behind the bed and twisted both of Bingwen's arms none-too-gently behind his back, even before the intruder could begin groaning and waking back up. Seeing that her partner needed no further help, Yumi instead turned and enfolded Chiko immediately into a hug. "Are you all right, little one?!"

"'m okay," Chiko mumbled, her face squished against Yumi's breastplate. Though the minor princess' tone was matter-of-fact, her tiny form was beginning to shake, betraying the fears suddenly catching up with her system. "I had to break Miss Cuifen's vase..." she seemed very concerned about this. Yumi laughed helplessly.

Outside in the courtyard, Iroh had also heard the sudden noises from the hallway, faint though they were through the abbey's thick walls. It was a good thing he had slipped his perfume treat in his pockets already, or it would likely have gotten smashed as well. "What in the blue blazes of Lord Atakashi?!!" The old dragon flew towards the hall entrance (uttering the name of one of the earliest Fire Lords, who was said to have azure flames like Azula's), with a speed belying his portliness.

***

When Zuko, Sokka, and Suki arrived at the abbey gates, they were linked arm-in-arm and singing together, almost as if they were drunk. Suki's tassels slapped the side of Zuko's forehead, and he just laughed. Sokka nearly tripped, laughing too. It seemed nothing could spoil their good mood--having returned from their errand successfully, and so relatively easily!

The young lord's eyes widened, though, at the scene in the courtyard. Four Earth Kingdom soldiers were standing at the center. Two of them were bracing the arms of a gaunt but rough-looking character, his head dipped sullenly, ponytail sticking up like a ripped-up feather-duster. Iroh was holding Chiko up in his arms, kissing her cheeks again and again. "You were a _very brave girl!_ Yes you were! Yes you were!" he was crying, squeezing her even more protectively than normal.

Lt. Yumi ran up to greet the returning trio. "Oh! Lord Zuko, thank goodness you're back!"

Though the danger was clearly over, whatever it was, Zuko was still alarmed. "Yumi! _What happened?!_ " he grabbed the guardswoman's shoulders, his heart suddenly in his throat. "--Where's my mother?!"

"She's fine, now," Yumi caught her breath, still a little shaky. "The captain is watching her. And her friend, that nun Cuifen--she just got back from gathering herbs or something--she's with her too...."

She told them the whole story, then--finding Bingwen, Chiko with the broken vase, the abbess sending a runner out to alert the nearest garrison.

"We're sorry we couldn't ask your instructions right away, my lord," the lieutenant finished, fidgeting with her removed helmet's rim in her hands; "but we figured it was best to avoid an international incident, and your uncle agreed."

Zuko nodded understandingly, and ran over to embrace said uncle-turned-adoptive father without another word.

Sokka glowered at Bingwin, meanwhile, long and hard. "...Does that mean I don't get to hit him either?" he huffed, reaching for his boomerang. " _You know what the Water Tribe does with mommy-stealers?! Do you??!_ " his blue eyes were fiery enough, one might almost doubt his heritage for a second.

Suki folded her arms beside her boyfriend, treating the would-be-kidnapper to the same harsh glare. "Kyoshi Island is technically part of the Earth Kingdom--maybe we should take him to face justice there, hmmm?"

Bingwen blanched. No one ever wanted to hear the words "Kyoshi" and "justice" in the same sentence. Nevertheless, he recovered himself enough to aim a snarl at the two young warriors, since he was in the custody of Zhong's Earth soldiers anyway.

Several paces away, Zuko was smothering Chiko with kisses, both of gratitude and relief, just as Iroh had been doing. The little girl shrieked with giggles, despite the circumstances, as her adoptive brother's lips tickled her cheek. Iroh reared up on tiptoes to get one more whiskery peck in, leading to to more quiet laughter. Then, after he and Zuko handed Chiko to Yumi, the elder Firebender became serious again.

"He apparently had ransom on his mind, rather than murder," Iroh threw a stern glance towards Bingwen, then back to his adoptive son's eyes, almost apologetically. "Underking Zhong's penalties for the assault and kidnapping of a peaceful convent will probably be harsh enough. I... thought bringing politics into mix would be unwise, so long as your mother was still safe and sound."

Zuko nodded quietly, understanding. Given their own pasts, the two Fire royals usually chose mercy over justice, particularly Iroh. As long as any potential victims were still being protected, of course.

_Still... forgiven or not, "remember your enemies' names."_

"So... who _is_ this ruffian?" Zuko barked to the Earth Kingdom soldiers, scowling and squaring his shoulders for effect, as looked Bingwen up and down.

"Bingwen, your Majesty," one of them barked in return.

The bandit's surly eyes met the Fire Lord's stern ones--and then suddenly, both of them widened in surprise.

_Zuko remembered a scruffy face--perhaps it was indeed this one?--laughing cruelly and taunting him and Iroh with a coin. And then with two interlocking swords. When they were beggars in the streets...._

Bingwen faintly remembered the incident too. That angry, angry young man, staring unblinkingly at him as he tormented the old one... that angry young man, with a scar just like the Fire Lord's....

_Oh._

Bingwen suddenly felt sick.

"Uncle..." Zuko squinted quizzically (remembering to use the old title for his aged relative); "do we _know_ this man?"

Iroh sauntered over. Bingwen's eyes widened further. The gray beard was certainly more neatly-trimmed this time, but...

_OH._

_("Oh" as in, "Oh it's a long, long way to Ba-Sing-Se.")_

_Oh, ostrich-horse dung!_

Bingwen's eyes nearly crossed now, his life frankly flashing before them.

Zuko and Iroh were trying not to laugh. "Well, Mr. Bingwen," the young monarch almost grinned casually; "you are certainly banished from the Fire Nation for life. You have my uncle to thank for simply turning you over to the Earth police--but perhaps... you could give us a little dance before you go?"

"I-I'm not very good at dancing, your Majesty," the bandit mumbled, rubbing one leg with the other foot.

"Now Zuko," Iroh chuckled paternally, rubbing his nephew-turned-son's shoulder; "he's been punished enough. Although..." now his own amber eyes shone mischievously; "since he _is_ banished from the Fire Nation, it will be such a shame that he will never get to see our _own_ cultural dances... and with him being so _fond_ of seeing other people dance..." he rubbed his beard thoughtfully, mournfully.

Then he flashed a sly smile at his one-time tormentor, hop-skipping over to him. "I tell you what, Mr. Bingwen-- _I'll give you a quick performance,_ before you have to go with these fine gentlemen to the police station. And I won't even charge you a gold piece for it this time!" he laughed.

Bingwen squinted curiously, if worriedly, at the eccentric noble, wondering what in pebble-crackers he was about.

"Are you _sure_ you wouldn't like me to teach you this fun little dance we have in the Fire Nation?" Iroh grinned, as he shuffled and clicked his heels, hands clasped behind his back. "It's _very simple._ It's called 'Hotfoot!'"

He suddenly flung his index-finger forward, an ember flashing from it, to land straight between Bingwen's grubby boots. The bandit involuntarily yelped, leaping half a man's-length into the air--then tugged at his Earth captors' arms, as if _asking_ them to march him out of this accursed abbey, with its crazy nuns and mad royal Firebenders!

Zuko fought to swallow his laughter (as did at least one of the Earth soldiers, by the look on his face). "Take him away," he nodded to them. The Earth captain returned the gesture, his small troop following him out the abbey gates, with Bingwen in tow.

Iroh was chuckling, too, albeit sheepishly. "That was rather naughty of me," he muttered up to his adoptive son, as he folded his hands back in their long sleeves.

"What are you talking about?!" Sokka laughed openly beside them, gesturing widely with both palms (and his boomerang); "that was _awesome!_ "

Suki was laughing into her sleeve, too, but then she straightened up. "Come on--" she tugged at her boyfriend's tunic, and beckoned to Zuko; "the abbess will be waiting for the feathers!"

Iroh gasped eagerly--in all the confusion, he hadn't even gotten to ask Zuko and his friends if their mission had been fruitful. The old noble took Chiko back from Yumi, he and his little princess both all smiles. And with her in his arms, he jogged after the three young warriors.

Zuko was already nearly to the steps of the convent's sanctuary-room, his elbows swinging behind him as he ran. _Inside, Abbess Meirong awaited... and the recipe for his mother's cure!_


	4. Chapter 4

Zuko unrolled the cloth from his pack, with the three feathers carefully lain in a row inside. The abbess gasped reverentially.

"Lord Zuko, we are indebted to you."

The young monarch shook his head modestly, gesturing to the friends at his side. "Please, Mother Superior, it was Suki who got the feathers. You should be thanking her."

Suki folded her hands and smiled almost shyly at the abbess. Meirong smiled too, touching her shoulder. "You will have saved many lives. Cicada-phoneix feathers cure many diseases, not just the sleeping-sickness--and most remedies require only a few barbs." She promptly pulled two of the vein-fibers from the first feather, and folded them in a small piece of paper from her desk. This she handed to Zuko.

"Take this to Sister Cuifen," she instructed; "she should already have prepared the other medicine ingredients."

The three young warriors all bowed slightly, in gratitude. Zuko cradled the paper-scrap to his chest, almost like a baby. "Thank you, Mother Abbess," he whispered, and then was already jogging out of the sanctuary-room, his family and guards following closely behind. Iroh and Chiko's amber eyes shone nearly as eagerly as the young lord's.

Meirong took the remaining cloth-roll with the feathers and laid it breathlessly in a drawer on her desk. She locked the drawer with a key. Such potent medicine was the most valuable thing an abbey could possess--it would not be left unguarded, for the few coming years it would last them.

***

Cuifen ground up the small feather-fibers with a mortar and pestle, to combine with the herb and flower-juice base she had already prepared. A few of her tears slipped into the bowl as she did so. "I'm sorry--" she laughed and sniffled; "the dust must have gotten in my eye."

Iroh smiled compassionately at the nun, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. "It is all right," he rumbled soothingly, just as he would to his children; "the tears of someone she loves will make the medicine sweeter!"

Cuifen looked over at him, her brown eyes melting in gratitude and surprise. _He acknowledges our bond, but he and Ursa's son of course will want her back home with them--as they should... so what does the future hold now, for all of us?_ she wondered tremulously.

Swallowing her worries, the nun swirled the ingredients together with a tiny stick, as carefully as if the feather-dust were magic (which, in a way, perhaps it was). Then she paused. "...I've made this medicine in an earthenware bowl, because that is what the recipe calls for. But it was written for Earth people, and Ursa is born of Fire... what if she needs something different to touch her cure instead?" she turned almost pleadingly to Zuko, now.

The young lord reached for the bowl. "I think I may have an idea--may I?" His golden eyes were as warm and compassionate as his uncle's amber ones. Cuifen nodded, and passed him the container trustingly.

Zuko closed his eyes, brought the medicine close to his mouth, and blew a tiny lick of flame over it, very carefully. Then he smiled. "There," he whispered. _It is done._

Chiko peeped from where she sat on Iroh's lap. "It's sure to work now, Big Ko," she smiled; "it has a tear from Sis Cuifen and a kiss from you! All the love will wake Auntie Ursa up, just like in a bedtime story!"

They all chuckled affectionately, if tearfully, at the little girl, hoping her innocent logic would indeed be correct.

Zuko was halfway to pouring the bowl in his mother's lips, when he stopped. "Wait--" he frowned, pulling back; "Mom isn't expecting to see any of us. She's only expecting to see you--" he turned to Cuifen again, the pleading look on his own face now. "Will this... will this overload her? Her waking back up, and seeing all of us gathered around her... her--her family she hasn't been around for over a decade?" his husky voice was cracking now--concern and eagerness battling within him, each emotion breaking the other at the seams.

Cuifen's throat was tight with compassion for the young Firebender. She had long since given up being afraid of him--she told him the truth. Though as softly as ever, simply by her nature. "It--it will be a great shock," she confirmed. "Shan doesn't even know the war is over--and if she sees your faces, she may think she is dreaming. I don't know how her body itself would take it--she will need to use those first few moments to simply get up, to focus her eyes, to learn to move her muscles again...."

Iroh's old amber eyes had been growing concerned now, too, at the healer's story. He had been hanging onto every word, holding Chiko almost like a child cradling a stuffed toy for comfort, as he listened.

"That's what I thought," Zuko sighed. His golden eyes cut Cuifen straight to the heart. _So much disappointment and understanding in those eyes, both at once._ This was clearly a great sacrifice for the young lord--him having wanted to see his mother's awakening so much. He gripped Cuifen's hands with one of his, slipping the small bowl back into them with the other.

"Sister Cuifen--you are my mother's closest friend. Please take this and heal her. Get her ready for us."

"I will do what I can, Lord Zuko. On my life, I will," the Earth nun whispered humbly, her tear-pricked eyes never leaving his.

"How... how long do you think it will take, until we can come in and see her?" Zuko then wanted to know.

"Maybe three hours, maybe a whole day," Cuifen shrugged helplessly. "I will need to get her talking and moving, and then see if she can stand, and then eat. After she can do all that, it will be safer to let her know the passage of time."

"A long time to wait," Zuko mumbled, almost like a child--not sourly, but sadly. "I at least wish there was a way we could know if the cure worked during all that...."

Sokka looked up from where he and Suki had been sitting solemnly, their hands clasped together over one of Suki's knees. "Maybe one of us can stay here, and then come to tell you when she wakes up," he offered. "She won't know us--we're strangers."

"Yeah..." Zuko began to smile a bit at that, at least. "That's a good idea. Thanks, Sokka."

The Water Tribesman grinned. "I'll sit tight and make sure she feels welcome, once she opens those golden peepers!" He crossed his legs, and leaned back with his head in one elbow. "--Or are they more amber, like your unc's?"

"Oh no you won't," Suki tugged (gently) at her boyfriend's ear. "You'd blab the whole story before poor Ursa even got her lunch down!" The good-natured twinkle in her eye let him know she did not mean it harshly, but she couldn't help mimicking him in that moment, beaming a manic smile. " _Hi! I'm Sokka! I'm your son's friend! Of course you're probably surprised because I'm Water Tribe, but that's because the war's over, and actually, Zuko played a big part ending it, and actually, I did too! And I'm not supposed to tell you that right now, but I guess I just did! My girlfriend is awesome and she found you some cricket-feathers! Do you like seal jerky? Are you excited to see your son? Was he that dramatic when he was a kid? And also, your brother-in-law is here too, and his little girl just finished saving you from a bandit this morning, and if you'd like, we can--_ "

"All right, all _right--_ " Sokka rolled his eyes, while Zuko was suddenly shaking with unvoiced laughter. Suki had certainly done them all a favor by lightening the mood.

"You've got to admit, Sokka," Zuko chuckled a bit more timidly at his friend, wiping at his good eye; "she has a point."

Cuifen pursed her lips more sympathetically at Sokka--who was, after all, her first friend from the group. "I am sure Lord Zuko needs a friend to keep him calm right now too, Master Tribesman," she encouraged him.

"Yeah, an' you can play with me!" Chiko peeped, from her seat on Iroh's lap.

Sokka gave in and smiled. "Okay--it'll probably be more exciting to keep Little Matchstick company anyway."

Iroh smiled appreciatively at him too, then.

Suki scooted her chair to the back corner of the room (which wasn't very far, it was so small). "I'll wait, and come tell you the moment Zuko's mother wakes up," she reassured them all, her own smile broad and sweet beneath her makeup. "She won't even know I'm here--I won't make a peep!"

"Thanks, Suki," the young lord's eyes were warm and grateful.

"We will take good care of your mother, Zuko--I promise," Cuifen squeezed his hand as he rose to leave, barely noticing that she had suddenly called him by his first name only.

Zuko's eyes were even warmer now, as he squeezed the nun's hand back. "Thank you, Cuifen," he whispered to her too, especially tenderly.

Then, halfway to the door, he stopped. "Does..." he turned around, with one more worry; "does she know about my scar?" Zuko's husky voice cracked with his wince.

Cuifen's own eyes were pained, now, realizing what a hard issue this was. For SO many reasons. She held her beads as if they were memories, scanning them. "I... I don't think so," she shook her head slowly, truthfully, after a moment. "We had heard that you were banished, a year or two before Shan--Ursa--fell ill. We had heard that Fire Lord Ozai had sent his son away to travel the seas, on some impossible quest. But that was about all most people knew, here in the Earth Kingdom, at that time. Nothing--nothing more specific."

Zuko nodded, taking this all in. "Make sure she knows," he almost peeped--somehow going from adult lord to timid child mid-sentence. "So that she can be... prepared." It was hard for him to fight the tears, now--his hand flying almost defensively over the damaged part of his face.

Iroh looked up at his boy with grave sympathy, his amber eyes dewing too. He wrapped himself around Zuko's arm, almost burying his face in the sleeve. _Forgive me that I could not protect you, my dear child._

Chiko tugged at the other sleeve, her little eyes somber too. "C'mon, Big Ko," she whispered, trying to distract him in her innocent way. "Let's go let your mommy wake up."

Zuko managed a sad little smile and a nod again, clasping Iroh's hand on one side and Chiko's on the other. The young lord slipped through the doorframe, shepherded by his adoptive family.

Sokka wasn't sure if he understood everything, but his blue eyes had lowered in sadness as well. He clasped Zuko's shoulder, to give his friend what support he could, as he exited behind the little Fire group.

***

Cuifen lifted the medicine-bowl, almost breathless, to Ursa's lips. At first, the swallow was soundless and almost motionless--just as it always had been, with the sustenance-nectar. But then Ursa groaned.

Suki shifted forward in her seat. Cuifen tilted the bowl in more forcefully now, raising Ursa's head to take it--her brown eyes (and Suki's gray-blue ones) wide with hope.

And then Ursa's own, golden eyes opened.

"Cui...Cuifen?" the Fire woman's voice was horribly hoarse and groggy--her vocal cords having lain in disuse for over four years. Confusion also showed all over her gentle features. "H-how long... h've I--?"

"Quite a while," Cuifen answered her, pressing her shoulder calmingly. The Earth nun had to fight for her own voice, now--through the happy sobs that threatened to break through, at seeing her dearest friend awake again. And also through the ambiguity of that sentence. _Better to not let Ursa know it was years, instead of months or weeks, until she was ready to take it._

Suki smiled broadly in the corner, and rose to leave. Ursa finally moved of her own accord, then--managing to tilt her head, just barely, in the direction of the noise. "Wh-who's that?..."

"Just a passing warrior," Cuifen smiled too, as Suki closed the door. She turned back to Ursa, still keeping her composure calm. "She retrieved the cicada-phoneix feather that made your cure, and she wanted to see how it worked, before she left." _Which was, after all, not a lie._

Ursa's face creased as she fell back on her pillow. "I had... dreams, Cuifen..." she began, her voice slowly becoming clearer, though still quite weak. "Dreams about my children..." her face screwed up, as if in pain. "Zuko was in a dark room, being circled by two dragons... I tried to reach him, but then he faded...! And Azula--" Ursa's voice truly was a sob now. "I saw her inside a mirror, and she looked so angry and sad--I was trying to reach through it, and tell her I love her, and then it broke--!!"

"Shhh... it was just a dream," Cuifen patted the other woman's shoulder again, soothingly.

"Are my babies okay?!" Ursa still cried, then only halfway regained her composure, remembering their surroundings. "I mean... I know we probably can't _know_ for sure out here, but--"

Cuifen had been feeling an odd amusement at the sheer enormity of news--predominately good!--that she would soon have to tell her companion. But now, her face filled with sympathy, for Ursa's maternal fear. "There have been... events, Shan, in the world, since you've been asleep. I am afraid it would make your head spin to go into it right now. But this much I can tell you already--your children are both alive." The Earth nun smiled quietly beneath her habit, hoping this would calm her Fire friend.

Ursa clutched her blanket. "I have to know how long I've been here," she suddenly stated, very much awake now. "Please, Cuifen--these dreams feel so foggy... it seems like they may have happened long ago. But then maybe they were only yesterday. Please, I... I _must_ know the passage of _time,_ at least!"

Cuifen exhaled through her nose, shaking her head in the same calm smile. Ursa (or Shan, as she would still have to call her for a few more hours) was her dearest friend. But at the moment, she was also her patient. So, Cuifen did what she had been trained as a healer to do. "Let's get you standing up first, and then I'll tell you how long you've been asleep." The Earth nun knew walking would be an important milestone, for measuring Ursa's stability. "Then we'll see if you can hold down supper. After _that,_ I'll tell you more news."

Of the two of them, Ursa had usually been the more assertive, at least by a small margin. She couldn't help but laugh at her companion, now. "Look at you, Cuifen--a person would suddenly think _you_ were the one with experience being a mother!"

The Earth nun tweaked Ursa's ear maternally, to suit this statement. But her playful smile was still wavery from the tears. "Come on," she finally managed, tugging one of Ursa's arms upward. "Can you raise the other on your own?"

***

Chiko and Sokka were out in the courtyard. The Water Tribe boy grinned rather cockily at his little companion, whom he had been showing tricks with his boomerang. "Okay--watch this," he brandished the weapon in front of him, with his back facing some stacks of hay several yards away. Taking one quick look over his shoulder, but not changing his stance, he tossed the boomerang from one hand-- _zip, zip, zip..._ and caught it in the other. It had come wheeling back, and had sliced some hay-stalks in the process, evidenced by them sticking to its blade.

" _Yaaaaaaaay!!_ " Chiko laughed and clapped, hopping up and down.

Sokka grinned even wider, pearly teeth shining. But then his eyes widened, as he saw Suki walking past the doorway from where they had come.

"Suki!!" he dashed back into the outer-wall hallway entrance, followed closely by Chiko, who almost stumbled over her little kimono-hem.

Iroh, Zuko, Yumi, and Karou were all huddled in the quarters assigned to the royal Firebenders. The young lord was on edge--literally--his feet dangling over the side of the small bed (which somehow still managed to hold Iroh too, his tubby form squeezed beside him). Zuko nearly jumped ten feet in the air when Suki entered, but was reassured by her graceful smile.

"She's awake," she whispered, kindly.

The noise Zuko made was hard to describe. He hugged his sides tight, shaking with happiness but nervous anticipation both at once. "When will she be here?? What will we say to her, Dad?!"

Iroh chuckled just as kindly, patting Zuko's shoulder. "Miss Cuifen is supposed to tell her most of the story. Perhaps you won't have to say much of anything--maybe we will just all hug and cry! Sometimes, that is what's really needed."

Zuko couldn't deny his uncle-turned-father's wisdom, as usual. He already got plenty of practice, by promptly clinging to Iroh and letting his eyes dew.

***

"All right, Cuifen. I'm standing up. Now will you tell me how long I was in that coma?" Ursa's golden eyes were rather challenging, as she braced herself on her feet. The Earth nun had let go of her shoulders--and while she had almost stumbled, for a second, she had then found the strength to stand tall, perhaps through sheer stubbornness.

Cuifen sighed. "All right, Shan--four years."

It was a good thing Ursa was still beside her bed, because she collapsed right back onto it, her long hair flying behind her like a cape. "Four _y-years?!_ " her voice quavered. _She had expected the measurement to be in months instead._

After shaking for two seconds in shock, Ursa swiftly lifted her hands up--turning them backside up, then palmside, then back again, studying them intently. It took two more seconds for Cuifen to realize what she was doing--checking to see if they had aged.

"I don't believe you have changed as much in those four years as I have, Shan," the Earth nun chuckled softly, reassuringly, as she sat beside her, just as Iroh had been doing with Zuko.

Ursa managed to return a sweet-natured chuckle too. "Oh Cuifen, you haven't aged a day--if you _had,_ I would have been more suspicious straight off!"

Cuifen blinked, then suddenly laughed heartily at this. "Good point!" she realized, accepting the compliment bright-eyed. Then she took Ursa's hand again. "Come on now--let's get you walking." She poked her head cautiously out the door, to make sure none of their Fire guests were about. Then she opened it wider, for Ursa to follow her in the hall.

Two other nuns of Winterjade gasped when they saw "Shan" walking, awake, through the narrow corridor, braced by Cuifen. One of them dropped the basket of flowers she was carrying, and both cried out to her happily.

Ursa beamed, laughing their names, returning their embraces. _All of the other nuns had been told, now, by both Cuifen and Meirong, that they were still to call Ursa "Sister Shan." And that they were not to tell her anything about the end of the war, let alone about their royal Fire visitors. Not until they were sure she could take it._ But none of this changed the genuine kindness and excitement in their voices--they all were so thankful, to see their sister well again.

Cuifen did, though, have to steer Ursa clear from the corner that would lead to the front of the abbey. From those windows, the tip of the Fire airship might be seen, beyond the trees. _And again, it was not quite time for that yet._

***

Supper that evening was boiled carrots and wontons. One of the smiling sisters wheeled a trolley with several plates of this into the Fire royals' waiting room. They all thanked her kindly, but Zuko looked at his serving without much enthusiasm, once she had left. He now knew the meaning of "butterfly-beetles in one's stomach."

Iroh was already diving into his own plate with gusto (and Chiko was at least nibbling on one of the sweeter wontons, as she bounced on his knee).

"How can you feel like eating?!" It was hard to tell if Zuko's voice was exasperated, or just queasy from all the nervousness.

Iroh gestured sagely with his chopsticks, a carrot half-raised to his bulging cheek. "Why, Zuko, there's no sense in welcoming your mother distracted by an empty stomach!" he encouraged his adoptive son.

Capt. Karou (who had a bulging cheek as well) looked timidly over at his Fire Lord. Then, without breaking eye contact, he held up his bottle of hot sauce, shaking it offeringly.

Zuko sighed, and--just as timidly--took it.

***

Abbess Meirong herself brought Ursa her supper, meanwhile. Her old eyes were shining fondly. "It is _good_ to see you among the living, my child," she told her, as she slipped the tray over her bed. And from the tone of her words, she truly meant it.

" _Thank_ you, Mother Superior," Ursa beamed, and dared to hug the elder, from where she now lay at rest under her blankets again.

Cuifen watched carefully as Ursa ate, after Meirong left. She only nibbled at her own supper; rather like the young Fire Lord, the middle-aged Earth nun was suddenly too anxious to have much of an appetite. This would be the last step; from here, lay the full revelation of the changes in the world. Where would she even _begin_ explaining them?!

"Do you feel... all right?" Cuifen leaned forward nervously to her friend. "Everything staying down?"

"I'm _fine,_ Cuifen," Ursa smiled, folding her hands over her stomach. "I'm able to walk and talk, and I'm able to chew! Now you keep _your_ part of the bargain, and tell me the whole story."

Bless her, her face looked so pleased and collected. _She's probably only expecting the "big changes" to be some new ordinances from Underking Zhong, or some small battle having taken place several cities over,_ Cuifen suddenly realized, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that fact. She settled for a deep breath instead.

"All right, Ursa... are you ready?" the Earth nun leaned even further forward, clasping both her friend's hands (Firebender hands! --And yet she had never feared them...) in her own.

Ursa blinked rapidly, a new note of concern washing through her features. "Why... why are you calling me that?" she hissed in a whisper. _Cuifen had spoken her real name before, at times, when Ursa would tell her about her past in the Fire Nation. But they only ever had done this in hushed voices before--that, or spoken it more normally when they were alone in meadows, gathering herbs._

Cuifen smiled as calmly and plainly as she could. "Because the war is over."

A squeaky laugh fought its way up awkwardly, from the back of Ursa's throat. "Wha-aat?" she tittered in disbelief, her golden eyes clearly saying _okay, now what's the rest of the joke?_

Cuifen suddenly found herself huffing out a light chuckle, too. But her brown eyes never left Ursa's--trying so desperately to make her realize that this was _real._ It was all so bizarre, yet strangely understandable too. Someone waking up to find a worldwide war of a hundred years--a war that had started before they were even born--suddenly disappeared, would be bound to disbelieve it.

"I am telling you the truth, Shan," the Earth woman slipped back into the familiar name; "and what's more, your son was instrumental in ending it! He and the Avatar."

"The _Avatar?!_ " Ursa laughed even more heartily now--though the wideness of her golden eyes was beginning to show, she was accepting this. Now her laughter was not exactly based in disbelief--but rather in helplessness, to do or say anything else!

Cuifen summarized the story of the war's end, then, as best she could. Most of it was what she and the other sisters already knew, even before Fire Lord Zuko had come to their abbey.

She told Ursa how two Water Tribe children had found the Avatar frozen in an iceberg, and how rumors of their adventures had then flown all through the Earth Kingdom. She told Ursa how her son and brother-in-law had chased the Avatar, and then had become joined to his side. She told her of Grand Lotus Iroh's re-taking of Ba-Sing-Se, liberating the city he had once aimed to conquer. She told her of Fire Lord Zuko's ascension to the throne.

There was some satisfaction at the humiliation of Ozai. And then there were some tears for Azula. Acknowledging that Ursa's daughter had remained on Ozai's side in the war had not been easy, and Cuifen had skimmed these details whenever possible.

"She is being cared for--" the Earth woman stroked her friend's shoulder, trying to comfort her. Iroh and Zuko had relayed this information to Cuifen beforehand--how Azula was now in a mental hospital on Ember Island. "You will get to see her, eventually...."

Ursa wiped at her cheek with a loud sniff, and nodded weakly. Cuifen squeezed her hand again, very tenderly. "...Now are you ready for the good news?"

Ursa looked at her dear companion, unable to speak--but her reddened eyes opening slightly wider, and her mouth slightly parting, as if in query. _Yes._

Cuifen managed another gentle smile--still somber, for Azula's sake, but unable to keep the excitement from bubbling nonetheless. "You can see _Zuko,_ at least, right now."

Ursa's mouth hung much more widely open now, her eyes suddenly like a minefield of diamonds. "He's _here?!!_ " she almost shrieked in shocked joy.

In all their years as healers at the abbey, Cuifen had never seen a convalescent move with such speed and vigor. It was a wonder that Ursa's bedding didn't snare her--her feet were down on the floor quicker, it would seem, than the time it should have taken to push the covers off. And those feet were not staying put, but flying to the door as if she were a teleporting spirit.

"Ursa, Ursa!!" Cuifen panicked, remembering her promise to Zuko. She managed to grab the Fire woman's shoulders just before she could get out into the hall. "Wait-- _there is one more thing you must know!_ "

"Let me go!! LET ME SEE MY BABY!!" Ursa was still shrieking, trembling as if her soul would thenceforth dash across the abbey if her body couldn't.

Cuifen clung to her, wrapping herself bodily around her friend--squeezing Ursa with all her might, both to restrain her and to strengthen her, for what she was forced to blurt next. "Ursa, _he has a scar!_ "

"What?" the Firebender suddenly slowed and peeped--taking a strange, confused sort of moment to process this, just as she had earlier, with the end of the war.

"He wanted me to tell you, before you saw him," Cuifen cried softly, now, burying her face in her friend's chest. If anything, she squeezed her tighter. Then she lifted her head back up, sadly, to motion with one hand. "He has a burn mark over one eye," she demonstrated. "It's impossible to miss. He..." her kind eyes were dewy with sympathy; " _he wanted you to be prepared._ " It was now Cuifen's voice that was a whisper, in its somberness.

Ursa looked like she had taken a wound to the stomach. She slumped in the other nun's arms. "H-how did he get it?..." she finally whimpered, her own eyes misty now.

Cuifen sighed. "His father challenged him to a..." she suddenly winced with confusion; "what is it your people call it? A--a fire duel?"

"An _Agni-Kai!_ " Ursa's gasp was hoarse with anguish. Then, suddenly, she made a sound even more unearthly--her whole body trembling violently again, in both sorrow and anger. "Rrrruuuuu...uuuee...eeeAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" She clenched one shaking hand tight, then cupped it up slightly, as it burst into flame. "I-I'll kill him! I'LL _KILL_ HIM!!" she screamed--every semblance of the peaceful nun, "Sister Shan," temporarily forgotten.

Cuifen took a step back, her brown eyes wide with fright.

Ursa stopped, stricken by the look. _She had never scared her dearest friend before._ Now her golden eyes were the ones wincing, as she extinguished the flame. "I'm... I'm sorry, Cuifen," she whispered. _Sorry to you, not to Ozai._

"T-the war might have ended sooner, if we had had _you_ on the frontlines!" Cuifen clutched at her throat and chuckled weakly, managing to smile again, in her joke. _The people of Fire were not born "naturally evil"--she and many Earth folk had begun to rediscover that, now. Just as their ancestors had always known, before the Hundred-Year War (and many had willfully forgotten). But Fire folks' reputation for ferocity was apparently well-deserved, nonetheless._

But as she saw Ursa's open face, like a sad rabbit-hamster, she couldn't be angry. Cuifen took advantage of her companion's sudden calm, to grasp her hand and tell her one other thing she had forgotten to mention. "It isn't just Zuko who came here to find you," she smiled, hoping this would inject a happier note again. "He has his family with him... your brother-in-law--"

Ursa gave that strange, quiet giggle of surprise again, though obviously in a pleased way, now. "Iroh?" she grinned. "Iroh is here?"

Cuifen's smile broadened fondly. "Yes, and his little girl..." she suddenly paused, her forehead wrinkling under her habit. "Though I don't suppose you would ever have met her--she is so young."

Ursa blinked, more in confusion this time. "Iroh has another child now? He... remarried?" Her own forehead wrinkled.

Cuifen shrugged helplessly. "I am not sure--you will have to ask him." Her gentle smile returned, then, along with her warm tone. "But the two of them seem to love you very much. They watched over you all this morning, while your son and his friends went to get the feather for your medicine."

Ursa looked like she had been given a surprise present at a birthday party. "...Zuko has friends?" her voice quivered softly, through her own smile.

For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, Cuifen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Of _course_ he does," she beamed reassuringly. "Now come on--it is time for you to meet them all!"

***

Nearly breathlessly, Cuifen knocked on the door of Zuko's quarters--squeezing Ursa's hand tight with the other. "Zuko? Your mother is ready to see you now."

Inside, Iroh squeezed Zuko's hand nearly as tightly, to stabilize the young lord from leaping out of his seat again. Both were wide-eyed, trembling with anticipation. "C-come in?" Zuko's husky voice managed to squeak.

It seemed as if the door opened in slow-motion. The mother and son stood on either side of it, staring in wonder for a second, both heartbeats stopped. When they started again, Ursa screamed. "ZUKO!!!!!"

"MOM!!!" Zuko managed to choke in return, flinging himself at her. They collided sobbing, wrapping their arms around each other with a force nearly strong enough to make up for all eleven years. The sounds they were making were nearly indescribable--there was some painful keening, but joy rising up beneath it.

Every other duo in the room watched, almost involuntarily tearing up themselves. Yumi squeezed Karou's hand as tightly as Cuifen had squeezed Ursa's in the hall. Sokka and Suki wiped at each other's faces. Chiko clung to Iroh's neck, and they both stood there with a hand reached out apiece--their mouths parted with joy, but keeping on opening and closing timidly--so anxious to speak, yet always thinking better of it, just before the words could form each time. _Let them have their moment first._

Ursa finally slid her arms up, to cup Zuko's face in her hands. Her golden eyes watered, with too many emotions to hold, it seemed--elation, regret, pain, adoration. Zuko winced, almost as if in shame, as she touched his scar. "I know--I know..." he hiccupped.

But his mother did not speak of shame or repulsion at all. "Oh Zuko..." she breathed, "you are so tall... and I'm--I'm so _proud_ of you!" she burst into more tears, burying her face in her grown child's chest. "I'm _so sorry_ I wasn't _there..._ "

Zuko's smile grew softly, as he brushed her hair. Pulling his mother closer, savoring the sheer knowledge that _he was holding her again._ "You saved my life, Mom," he whispered, managing to keep his voice clear, if low; "you don't have to be sorry." _Because I understand you couldn't have come back, then, without Ozai killing you or us._

They stayed pressed together, there, for a moment longer. Then, over Zuko's shoulder, Ursa finally caught sight of Iroh, patiently waiting his turn. Much grayer, and a little fatter still, than she remembered--but unmistakably him. She laughed his name through a wet smile. "I-Iroh?"

"Ursa," he chuckled damply in return, his billowing sleeves opened wide. Just as Ursa had had to bend upward, now, to embrace her son, she had to bend downward just slightly, to embrace her tubby little brother-in-law. The two of them both laughed warmly, and were only interrupted by the tug of a little hand on Ursa's gown. "Auntie Ursa!" Chiko laughed lovingly up at her, hugging her leg.

Ursa stared down in surprise, for one moment. Iroh was already lifting the little bundle up, chuckling softly again. "This is Chiko," his eyes shone as only a father's could. He held the child close to his sister-in-law's level, so that she could wrap her little arms around _her_ neck now. "She has scarcely left your side since we've been here!"

Ursa's confusion at this new face melted into fondness, at the child's innocent outpouring of affection. "Why, _thank_ you, little one!" she laughed sweetly, returning the tiny hug. She looked over Chiko's shoulder back to Iroh, though, hoping to satisfy her curiosity that Cuifen had not been able to earlier. "Is she...?" she mouthed.

Iroh was thankfully able to guess at Ursa's meaning, and was not offended--it was a natural question, after all. "Zuko and I found her on our ship, a year ago," he smiled patiently, ruffling the little one's head from where she still lay in Ursa's arms. His amber eyes were like sundrops. "She is mine now." He barely paused, to then add thoughtfully, "And Zuko...."

Zuko stepped in, seeing where this was going. He placed his hand on Iroh's shoulder--fondly, proudly, but gently. "Mom... I call Uncle Iroh my Dad, now," he let Ursa know, his voice humble but unhesitant. "It's no reflection on _you_ \--" his golden eyes strained briefly, hoping she would understand--"you'll _always_ be my mother."

He needn't have worried. If anything, Ursa's tears of joy grew thicker. _When the rumors had come to them, that the son of Fire Lord Ozai was exiled at sea--and that the disgraced Dragon of the West accompanied him--Ursa had hoped so fervently, then, that this meant her child at least had a champion. And this... THIS was better than anything she could even have dreamed._

The former Fire Lady leaned forward, so that Chiko slipped safely back onto Iroh's chest, and so he and Zuko both ended up in her arms. "I'm _so happy,_ " she cried, letting them know. _For so many reasons._

Cuifen had been crying in the doorframe, meanwhile, just as all the duos had been in the room. Iroh saw her, and motioned kindly, stretching out his hand to her. _You are not forgotten--please come and join us. You belong here too._

The Earth nun's smile cracked gently, as she stepped into the little ring. Ursa gripped her tight. _Thank you._

It seemed Sokka might almost be getting jealous, because he took a few questing steps closer to Zuko, too. The young Fire Lord chuckled--the introductions were still not over!

"These are my friends, Mom!" he smiled proudly, framing Sokka's shoulders and one of Suki's, with his own outstretched arm.

Ursa's eyes, like Iroh's earlier, were almost like the sun. "...I am _glad_ my son has friends," she told them, squeezing _their_ hands now.

Somehow, nothing more needed to be said.

Well, _almost_ nothing. "Can we make Auntie Ursa some berry tea now?!" Chiko hopped up and down impatiently. _She was still rather upset that she and Iroh hadn't gotten to share their treat with her new Auntie, earlier._

"Oh, _Chiko!_ " Zuko groaned, though not unkindly. "Shouldn't we wait? I think we're all still a bit full from supper." _And have had our stomachs jostled to death with so many emotions._

"Why, _nonsense!_ " Iroh was in hearty agreement with his smallest child (to absolutely no one's surprise). He grinned and produced his teapot with a swish of his robes, again almost by magic.

And so everyone laughed, and shared the sweet berry tea, seated in a ring (even Zuko).

***

The hour was growing very late, but Zuko's family had eleven whole years to catch up on. Cuifen sat with them, perched on one of the bedsides with Ursa, holding a lantern.

There was quite a bit of shock--and then laughter, at Ursa's reaction, since the danger was well over--when they told her about the incident mere hours before, of the bandit Bingwen trying to kidnap her. Chiko _soaked up_ the attention and cooing praise, cuddling in Ursa's lap like a happy kitten.

And then the conversation turned more somber, when it came to the matter of Azula. To hear that one of Ursa's children had tried to kill the other (and her brother-in-law too, at one point) was no easy thing. And as gentle as the young Fire Lord had tried to be, the confession about Azula thinking Ursa found her a monster also slipped out. Ursa's wails came back at both of these revelations, and Zuko rocked her back and forth, trying to calm her.

 _It was OZAI'S doing,_ Zuko tried to reassure her. _It wasn't YOUR fault._

But Ursa still blamed herself, at least to a point. "All those times I praised you, after your father praised _her..._ " she choked; "I did it to _counterbalance_ him, but I should have _realized..._ I should still have been praising her _too,_ more often than I did..." her golden eyes screwed up, in painful regret. _It wasn't that she had NEVER bragged on Azula, but these incidents had admittedly been less frequent, than those with Zuko._

Iroh paused for a moment, his own eyes lowered somberly. _Ursa was not the only one who sometimes wished she could go back in time, and speak the words that needed to be spoken earlier. Especially where family was concerned._ But he had also learned that doing the most good in the present was a far better thing, than simply regretting the past and never thinking beyond it. "Perhaps you will be able to help Azula _now,_ Ursa," he rumbled kindly. "She has shut herself off to us, but perhaps she will not have shut herself off to _you..._ especially when she hears you, there in person, refuting the lies Ozai fed to her."

Zuko tapped his thumbs together, looking at them sadly. "I had been wondering what to do with the old beachhouse on Ember Island, Mom. I was feeling guilty about it just laying there empty right now. Maybe..." he lifted his head, injecting a hopeful whisper; "maybe if you stayed there, closer to her facility, Azula would believe you."

Ursa faltered. "Zuko--" she tried to gather her thoughts, and her words--this seemed quite a sacrifice on her son's part.

"You'll always have a home in the palace if you want it, Mom!" Zuko nearly cried again then, grabbing her hand to reassure her. "And it's an even shorter distance than it used to be, with the new airships." (He laughed inwardly for a moment, forgetting that his mother probably didn't know about those yet.) "From Caldera City to Ember Island by ferry was never more than a couple hours' trip--and now with a balloon, it's less than one. We'll see each other _all the time!_ "

Ursa began to tear up a bit again herself, smiling, but her eyes still pained and concerned. "Zuko..." she clasped both her son's hands now, staring at him very earnestly. "You know that I love you and Azula _equally_...."

"And I love Zuko and Chiko equally!" Iroh interjected, scooting closer to the duo, with the adopted princess in his lap. "But Zuko lives in the palace, and Chiko lives with me in the teashop, because that's what's best for them, for their lives..." he tried to encourage Ursa. "We see each other _every day,_ and we have sleepovers every week." He began to grin. "And _I_ for one would love to start having them at Ember Island too! I agree with Zuko--the royal beachhouse has stood vacant for far too long."

"We aren't trying to get rid of you, Mom," Zuko managed to laugh, then, still grasping Ursa's fingers tight. "But you always loved Ember Island so much, with the sands and the flowers and the playhouse... and the summer-home needs a caretaker... and--and most of all, so does Azula. We'll send hawks at least every week, and have sleepovers at least every month, and you can ride the ferry right up to the royal harbor any day you like...."

Ursa smiled more firmly at Zuko, then, through eyes still moist and soft. "Then I will go where I am most needed," she agreed. Her smile broadened through the tears, as she looked over his shoulder to Iroh and Chiko. "And it seems you have had a family keeping an eye on you, even while I've been gone!..."

Iroh blushed modestly, lowering his head in a smile of his own (and leaning lovingly into Zuko's shoulder as he did so). Chiko grinned even more innocently, wrapping herself around Zuko's red sleeve. The young Fire Lord chuckled at them both, in acknowledgement.

Then Ursa remembered who was sitting behind her, and her heart twinged. She turned suddenly to Cuifen--her companion for all these years. The Earth nun had been watching the Fire family's whole conversation without much input--usually smiling and crying along with them. But with just a tiny hint of pain twisting in her middle-aged brow, nonetheless.

"Cuifen..." Ursa breathed, now moving to clasp both of _her_ hands. "You are the best friend I have ever had... and I want you to know that--that I will always love you _too_...." She let a single tear fall down each cheek now, never minding when they dropped onto her simple robe.

"I-I know, Shan," Cuifen managed to smile bravely at her companion, half-chuckling and half-crying herself. "You must go to your children now, I know that... I have _always_ known that." Her voice began to break, then. "And I am--so happy for you, that you have _found_ them at last...!"

Ursa stared at their clasped hands, thinking for a moment, then squeezed them tighter. Her golden eyes darted back up, warm and sincere. "You can come _with_ us, if you want--" she started. Then she suddenly whipped her head back to Zuko--her son, but also her new Fire Lord. "C-can't she?" she suddenly asked confirmation.

"Of _course_ she can!" Zuko nodded emphatically. "There's no reason why Sister Cuifen can't apply for Fire Nation citizenship. And I'm sure you could use an extra hand taking care of the beachhouse," he grinned at both of them.

Iroh shot an understanding look over at the sister, who was trembling a bit with indecision, now. "There are not as many Earth immigrants on Ember Island, as there are in the embassy neighborhood of Caldera City, where I live," he told her, feeling she deserved to know every factor. His manner was as gentle as it had been in that first conversation in Ursa's room, when he was trying not to scare her with his past.

"But there may be one or two others," he continued, in his gruff voice; "and of the Fire folk on the island, like everywhere else right now, there would be a mixture. Some would still be unfortunate bigots, and would be unkind." Then the old Fire prince began to smile again. "But others would be learning, and would be kinder. And still others would already be open-minded to the other elemental races, and would love you."

Ursa nodded over at Iroh--grateful to him for summarizing it so honestly, but caringly. "We don't want to take you away from your home, and from your life's path as a nun here, if this isn't what you wish, Cuifen," she let her friend know. "But if you _do_ wish to come with us--then know that no bigot would hurt you, without facing a Fire Lady's wrath!" Ursa's golden eyes held a challenging glint, and Cuifen laughed weakly, remembering her outburst in the hall.

She looked around at every figure in the room, as she still held onto Ursa's hands with one of hers. Their faces were all open, blinking--hesitant but kind, not wishing to push her decision either way. And that in itself reassured her. _It was still so hard to believe that such understanding people could once have been members of a dynasty that had plagued the world._

"I became a sister because I had no family left," Cuifen's own eyes were open and guileless, shrugging. A few tears beaded in them again, but almost unconsciously. "Shan is the closest thing I've had to family for a while..." _she used the old name without thinking._ "But I have never known a life outside the Earth Kingdom, or even outside Underking _Zhong's_ particular kingdom. I will..." she clutched her beads again, for support; "I will need to sleep on this, if that's all right."

"Of _course_ it's all right!" It was Iroh, now, who rumbled out soothingly. "You have _every_ right to sleep on such a large decision!"

_Zzzzz...._

The old Fire prince's chuckle grew warmer, then, as he noticed his little girl passed out on his leg. _It was well past Chiko's usual bedtime, by now._

"And the hour grows late," he summarized with a smile, lifting Chiko up very gently on his chest, and plopping onto his assigned bed without any further delay. "We _all_ need our beauty rest." He made time to raise his head just visibly over the bulge of his stomach, so that he could wink at the two nuns. "Especially those of us with such natural beauty!" he teased.

" _Dad!_ " Zuko chuffed scoldingly, punching Iroh's shoulder.

Ursa laughed heartily, and Cuifen managed a giggle too, as she left for her own sleeping quarters.

***

The next morning, the inhabitants of Winterjade Abbey lined its front wall to see the Fire Lord's party off, just as they had to welcome them earlier. The airship lay waiting in the front lawn, the coals of its engine beginning to burn.

Cuifen stood out from the middle of the line, to hug Ursa. "My son sends messenger-hawks to his friends, even as they travel the world," the Fire woman whispered over her shoulder. "Sending them to you here should be even easier." Her golden eyes threatened to overflow again, in her promise. "You will not be left forgotten, Cuifen. Never ever!"

Cuifen's own brown eyes leaked tight shut. "When I called you 'sister,' Ursa, I _meant_ it. It was never just a title," she kept patting her back, as she held her.

"I know," Ursa whispered again, even more tenderly.

Beside them, Chiko was saying her goodbyes to Sokka. " _Thank_ you for all the drawin's, Mister Sokka!" the little girl hugged his booted leg. " _Especially_ the one of Bapa and me sleepin'!" She giggled, her amber eyes like stars again. "You drew him _just perfect!_ "

Sokka beamed--even if Chiko was a child, for someone to appreciate his artwork meant more than they knew. As did their friendship in general. He lifted Chiko up by her armpits, quite easily, and whispered through his smile. "See ya around, Little Matchstick."

"Please come see us sooner this time," she whined, her eyes growing a bit sad now. "I missed you."

"My sister and I _are_ both overdue for a visit to Capital City," Sokka agreed. "Maybe I'll grab ahold of her, and we'll come next month. But until then..." he looked over at Zuko, and then pushed his nose against the little girl's, grinning. "Don't let him get too serious, okay?"

Chiko's own little grin grew to match Sokka's, as their noses stayed touched. She giggled again, in a way that surely let him know, "orders received and taken."

Zuko was addressing Suki, meanwhile. He grasped her shoulders earnestly. " _Thank you,_ Suki," he told her; "for _everything!_ "

The Kyoshi Warrior chuckled with uncharacteristic timidity, looking down at her feet. "All I did was approach a bird gently, and brush it for feathers."

Zuko shook his handsome head, black hair swishing. "I don't care _what_ you call it--Avatar Kyoshi herself would be proud of you."

Suki held her spread fan at chest-level--staring at her reflection in its golden surface. Her brow furrowed thoughtfully underneath its white makeup. "Kyoshi's legacy was all about justice," she mused. "But maybe it's not justice that I want to spread anymore, primarily." She folded the weapon and put it in her belt, and met her friend's gaze again, her eyes full. "Maybe it's kindness."

Zuko's own eyes grew warmer in affirmation. "And that is what you've given us," he nodded--"a chance to heal."

Then the Fire Lord looked over at the Water Tribesman, just as Sokka had been looking over at him, a second before. "Keep him out of trouble, okay?" he whispered to the Kyoshi Warrior.

Suki's smile deepened. "It's not as hard as it looks."

Yumi, Karou, and Iroh waited for them all at the airship gangplank, Iroh's robes and Yumi's hair blowing gracefully in the wind. The old Fire prince beamed in the summer sun, shepherding his family onboard and bringing up the rear.

Cuifen stood shaking and gripping her beads tight. Abbess Meirong looked over at her, with intense sympathy. "It is _your decision,_ my child," she put her weathered hand on Cuifen's shoulder, seeking to remind her once more. There was no begrudement in the Mother Superior's voice--not a single note of condemnation.

Cuifen looked over at the elderly nun, with a face that was hard to describe. _Apology? Gratitude? Well-wishing?_ Then she looked back at the Fire airship, with its crewmen beginning to lift up the ramp. She took a step forward.

And then she ran.

"Wait! _Waaait!_ " the Earth nun--the _former_ Earth nun--cried out, waving her habit in the air, to make sure they saw her in the grass.

Ursa and Capt. Karou, who had been closest to the carriage-rim, gasped. They reached out for Cuifen, grasping one of her arms apiece, just as the blimp began to rise into the air. The muscular Karou did the heaviest lifting, and deposited Ursa's best friend straight into her embrace.

_Sometimes, family is born--other times, it is found._

***

As the airship traveled over the tall conifers of the Earth Kingdom, the little Fire family huddled in the seating room again. Only this time, with two extra members--one of them a surprise.

Cuifen, though happy, was still a little shaky from her sudden decision--from this brave new world, that she had quite literally stepped into through thin air. Chiko had promptly crawled into her lap--almost seeming to make it her mission to calm the Earth woman.

"I was from a Fire colony," she peeped up at her, the politics of this statement the furthest thing from her mind. "It was parta the Earth Kingdom too, an' I had never been away from home." The little Fire princess beamed. "But then my Bapa found me, an' I didn't feel as scared anymore. And I got a _new_ home." She cradled her handkerchief-doll in her lap, as she sat in Cuifen's, still smiling.

The point of Chiko's story was not lost on the Earth woman. She smiled gratefully down at her too. Getting to hold such a happy child was calming in itself, in a way--a reminder to approach things as innocently and optimistically as this little bundle did. The anxieties seemed to melt away, then.

"What's your doll's name?" Cuifen asked then, friendlily.

"Rei," Chiko answered, her smile-corners peaking up even further into her cheeks. Then her little face grew thoughtful again, as she told the same thing to Ursa's friend, that she had told to (the then-unconscious) Ursa earlier. "Bapa gave me the napkin, and Mommy taught me how to make dolls, so Rei is from both of them. Do you need a dollie now too, Miss Cuifen?"

"I'm fine, little one--" Cuifen half-chuckled softly, but Chiko didn't seem to hear her. She was reaching for the ex-nun's habit, lying in the seat across from them. Cuifen had not even had a chance to change out of her uniform, yet, and her hair was rather uncombed.

"This was your head-cloth?" The little girl beamed innocently again, with the white fabric held in her lap.

"Yes--" Cuifen's brow wrinkled slightly--though her own smile showed that she was simply confused, not worried, at what Chiko wanted with it.

"You got it from the other nuns, so it will always remind you of them," the child nodded in satisfaction. She began wadding up some paper to stuff in it for the "head," and neither Cuifen nor any of the Fire family protested. This was simply too sweet for words.

"There," Chiko finished tying off the "arms" and the "dress" of Cuifen's new doll, just as she had done for "Rei" the year before. This toy was a bit bigger than her own, since it was made with a larger cloth than Iroh's kerchief. But then, that was good, Chiko reasoned, because Cuifen was a grown-up lady bigger than her. She deposited the doll in the former nun's arms, and Cuifen smiled and hugged it obediently.

"She'll help you not feel scared an' lonely anymore," Chiko smiled back at her, nodding from experience. "Now you just have t' name her!"

Ursa, Iroh, and Zuko were nearly melting now, watching this scene and trying not to chuckle aloud in fondness. It wasn't that anything was particularly funny--this was all just so very dear. Ursa had her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, Zuko's own arms were cupped around her shoulders, and Iroh's were cupped around his, but their faces were all glued to the little girl and the former nun.

Cuifen thought for a moment, then nodded as seriously as Chiko had done. "Qing," she decided, using an old Earth word for the blue of the sky. "Because she was born up here in the air."

Chiko thought that was a _fine_ name. Prince Iroh and Lady Ursa did too.

The little group talked of many things, then, and Chiko eventually scampered back to Iroh's own lap. As Zuko began describing how the beachhouse would need to be remodeled (it still had a few disrepaired areas, from that training scuffle he and Aang had had during Sozin's comet), Iroh took the opportunity to uncork his new bottle of perfume. He sniffed it happily again, and dabbed it on each of his bushy cheeks. Then he rubbed the remainder on Chiko's own plump cheek.

The little girl wriggled happily, both at the pleasant smell and at her guardian's warm touch. Iroh chuckled happily too, and then, freshening his fingertips with one more dab of the fragrance, he promptly slapped it on Zuko's knee.

"Aackphth! _Dad!_ " Zuko flew backwards and scolded. Ursa covered her mouth at his other side, giggling helplessly.

"What?" Iroh feigned innocence, though his grin was quite impish. "Don't you want to smell like a _pretty_ Fire Lord, Zuko?"

"I'd _like_ to finish telling Mom about my coronation first, thank you," Zuko answered rather short-temperedly, leaning back into Ursa's shoulder. He was filling her in on all his memories of that day--the speech he had given, and Aang standing by his side--both because he so wished his mother could have been there, and because it was one of the least-frightening incidents from his adventures with Team Avatar.

Iroh, it seemed, was not done being mischievous, though. As Zuko finished describing the cheers of the crowd, his uncle-turned-adoptive-father put in, "Zuko? Since your mother is all over that dreadful shock now, with the ruffian who tried to kidnap her... why don't we tell her about the time you dressed up as the Blue Spirit, and infiltrated Pohuai Stronghold all by yourself?" His toothy grin nearly split his sideburns.

Zuko had had enough. With a look that was 10% ultimately fond amusement, 40% pout, and 50% fury, he grabbed Iroh into a headlock, and started noogying his bald scalp. "What about the time you had to take a nap in the hot springs and get your butt captured by Earth soldiers, and I had to rescue you?!" he growled. "Or what about the _white jade bush?!!_ Let's tell her about the WHITE JADE BUSH, DAD!!!" he noogied harder.

"Yeeep! Help, help!" Iroh squirmed and protested, though his giggles still managed to bubble through.

The whole family's laughter rang out, as the airship drifted further towards the approaching ocean. And from there, to home.

***

Early the next week, Zuko, Iroh, and Chiko stood with Ursa and Cuifen, on the jetty at Ember Island. Above the sandy hill, the *ticker-tack* of carpenters could be heard, repairing the damaged wing of the royal beachhouse. The main hall was already cleaned up, with a bed apiece for Ursa, Cuifen, and three live-in servants. Zuko had hand-picked them for his mother, from amongst the longest-standing of the palace staff. There were several who had been very attached to Ursa in the old days, and were now overjoyed to find their lady returned.

They, Ursa, and Cuifen would finally make the royal Fire family's summer-house a home. Ursa would see her favorite old plays again, and share them anew with Cuifen. They would grow flowers in the sunniest rooms, and would make them into perfumes, just as they had been taught at their abbey (Iroh in particular was excited about that, and all the free samples it would mean for him).

...And Ursa would go to see Azula every day, where her caregivers kept her. She would do everything she could, to help heal her child's heart and mind alike.

Iroh passed a beautifully-wrapped package to the former Fire Lady. In it was a teaset, with a ceramic platypus-bear curled around the lid. _Azula's favorite animal._ "Tell her it's from Uncle," he whispered, gently.

Ursa nodded, understanding. "You saved one of my children, Iroh." Her golden eyes shone out, strong and full. "Now perhaps I can save the other."

Iroh smiled softly, and bowed. "We pray for it every day, dear Ursa."

He held his own daughter's hand, helping her tiptoe back over the boards to the ferry.

Before he turned to leave with them, Zuko took one more step forward, his royal cloak billowing softly in the sea breeze. "Mom?"

Ursa looked up, at her beautiful son--so strong now, so brave, so healed, so _alive._ Her eyes melted with love, and gratitude to Heaven. For the new lease on life they had both been given. And for all the new chances she would now have, with him and Azula alike, though in different ways.

Before she could even speak in reply, Zuko had grabbed her into a bear hug. He laughed aloud, all the emotions of the last few days tumbling out together, in a great shriek of joy. Before he stepped back on the ferry, he just wanted her to know. " _I'm so glad you're back!!_ "


End file.
